The Blood Seal: Chicago part 1
by Sylo Corden
Summary: Ghost gets recruited to stop a group of runners from stealing a strange device, pretty soon she's dragged in over her head again, and now there's more at stake than just a quick job . . .
1. Chapter 1

The Blood Seal – Chicago Part One

Electric fingers played over my skin, tugging at the invisible threads wrapped there. A warning. _Someone was coming_.

My eyes snapped open, instantly alert I sprung from the chair I had been dozing on. I felt my warning spell collapse, who ever it was had a magic user with them. Default reaction under threat was to become invisible, I picked up my combat knife from the dresser and made it to the door, my back to it's left side just as a high pitched whine was heard.

A charge.

I covered my head with my arms, blocking my ears and closing my eyes as the whine escalated. The door exploded off its hinges. Splinters of wood and dust flew into the room, my eyelids flared for a second and a popping sound could be heard through my hands. A flash bang. I counted to three before opening my eyes, beside me through the broken doorway I watched three men dressed in black military combat gear enter my apartment. Guns up, assault rifles at the ready.

The third man crossed the threshold then dropped dead as my knife slashed across his exposed throat. High grade armour won't stop what it doesn't protect. A soft gurgle was the only sound he made, his colleagues didn't notice until they turned to give the signal to fan out, a second fell from my unseen hands, blood from his throat sprayed out over his companion. The third shouted into his comm. link, back up on the way he sprayed the area over his dead companion, too slow, I was no longer there.

My knife moved again, a shot rang out and blood gushed from the soldier's neck, gasping with his hand on his throat, he fell, still alive.

My eyes moved to the doorway, there stood three new soldiers; clad the same as their comrades with the exception of the man stood at the front of the party. Gun in hand, his eyes focused on me, I glanced down at my knife. A third of the blade was missing; the length split in two a sharp crescent at its new tip.

A clean shot, that explained the gasping man at my feet, another inch of blade and he'd be on his way to whatever afterlife he believed in.

The man's comrades had their weapons pointed towards me, but their eyes were unfocused. No, only the stranger before me could actually see me. This was my magic user then. His emerald green eyes were wholly focused on me, hand holding a pistol with a steady ease, he was tall, a good six three, maybe six four. He was dressed in black jeans, t-shirt and long overcoat, and his face giving a three day growth of beard, not military then. The only similarity with this guy and his half dozen grunts was the target. Beside him one of the soldiers made a strangling noise, his eyes fixed on the blood and bodies before him, the gun in his hand shaking, I noticed the modified taser on the end as the weapon, _they meant to take me with them then_. The Taser in his hand went off in anger, the barbs piercing my skin on a lucky shot and sending electricity through me, I simply let it flow, absorbing it, much to the surprise of the mage stood before me. The black ski mask the soldier wore hid most of his face but the horror in those crystal blue eyes was clear. The mage ignored him.

"You brought a rookie to apprehend me?" I asked dropping my spell and tossing my knife to the floor, useless now "I feel so insulted" I tutted, I pulled the barbs from my skin, tearing part of my T in the process; the rookie's eyes snapped to me, I could feel his hatred, so powerful it almost felt physical, the potential of magic perhaps? His hatred turned to shock as he took in my wiry frame, waves of red berry hair hung loose to my waist, I was clearly not what he had expected, at 5'8" I was average height for a woman, but I was all lean muscle beneath my plain jeans and T-shirt, my green eyes wide they were large features giving me a childlike innocence to my look. The soldiers now were hesitating, not believing their eyes, the muzzle of his rifle shook, I muttered under my breath softly

"Evelyn Xanders, Runner name Ghost, known aliases Courtney Hope, Erin Ford, Devon Wright, Shyuga Nave. You're to stand down and come with me, should you resist I have full authority to exterminate you" Mr Emerald eyes spoke calmly, a stone figure. He might not be dressed to military standards but he had the training and I didn't doubt him for a second.

I raised my hands in surrender and he gave the signal to lower weapons, the rookie stayed put, death glare to full power, I wondered for a moment who I'd taken out, a colleague, a partner, or a close friend? Emerald placed a hand on the rifle, momentarily leaving eye contact; I took the split second to finish my muttering. The last of the assault rifles now pointed downwards, but Emerald's pistol remained on me. He was taking no chances; smart man. He produced a pair of cuffs and I shook my head

"Not unless you want ten K of volts" I warned, he raised an eyebrow

"Are you resisting?" he asked coolly

"Just warning, I'm charged, physical contact may shock you" I said, a soft snort was heard from one of the soldiers on Emerald's right, something in my comment must have amused him.

The eyebrows grew taller and for the second time the mages eyes left mine as he looked about the room, a simple apartment, no comm., not even a visualizer, his analytical gaze took in the soft rubber pads stuck to walls near switches and around door handles, insulation from electrical charges.

I had come back from Tibet eight weeks ago after receiving a huge magical charge that had almost killed me. My body had since developed this awkward tendency to electrocute things that I touched. His eyes flickered back at me, I slowly pulled up the sleeve of my left arm, and purple lightning like a burnt tattoo was stark against my pale skin. A mark like that could only be made from high magical energy. As runners we only ever saw that kind of mark on corpses. It was a miracle I was still alive, so if a few things shocked or fried out occasionally I could live with it.

"So the rumours are true" he murmured looking for a moment in awe "You survived with only a minor burn?" he asked in disbelief

"I wouldn't say that" I said pulling up my T-shirt, the tattoo visible across my stomach before disappearing below my waist line, and much lower than that.

"You're either a more powerful mage than we gave you credit for or you're incredibly lucky" he said, a slight hitch in his voice, was he impressed? I shrugged; let him think what he liked.

"So are you going to tell me where I'm going? Or is this a guessing game?" I asked

"Think what you will, my orders are to bring you in alive or exterminate you, but you will need your gear, my boys will gather your weapons" _My gear? Weapons? Interesting_

"A job offer then?" I assumed

"One you won't refuse" _hmmm_ interesting choice of words

"Could have just said please" I told him, he smiled then, showing me a little more of the man that would stick around for the military training but have enough of himself to know when to rebel back

"What would be the fun in that?"

"My landlord is going to kill you for that" I said nodding to the dust that was now my front door

"Let him try" Emerald eyes said waving me through the rubble over the silent forms of his dead men, we were finally outside, his rookies inside collecting my things and seeing to their dead, alone he turned to me, the poker faced mask gone now looking decidedly more human "You know you didn't have to do that"

"Do what?" I asked innocently

"Heal the soldier, he failed in his mission and knew the consequences of what he was getting into" so he'd seen my spell, of course he had, _he had eyes that saw everything._

"But you went to a lot of trouble to save him" I said with a smile, I let the smile drop "Besides I only kill if absolutely necessary"

"And the other two?"

"You came at me with guns, self defence and so yes it was necessary" I paused and gave him a softer look "don't worry, it was quick"

"I appreciate it" I nodded and got into the back of a black sedan, Emerald tapped the driver's shoulder and he started the engine, the rookie came running through the door, unarmed, ski-mask off but those blue eyes were unmistakable, he slid in front of the van halting it. Even through the heavy tint his eyes found mine, no hatred this time, he simply nodded, his soft brown hair falling into his eyes, I nodded back and he moved aside, the driver put the sedan in gear and moved off,

"Who was it?" I asked

"Ensign Kumara" came the reply

"Not the rookie, the partner, brother?"

"Oh I see, it was lieutenant Soma" he gave me a look before continuing "They're _partners_ " the stress on partners was not lost on me

"Dangerous putting lovers on the same team"

"Not my idea, I think the General wanted something to happen"

"Puritan?" I asked

"Of the worst kind" he confirmed "No metahumans on board the crew of his personal guard, no magic, no same sex marriage, everyone who's been exposed so far has met an ugly end, his excuse? Purity must be maintained and the Gods of fate have decreed as much"

"Sounds charming" I said "so how come you're here?" I asked, he gave me a look that told me it was a longer story than I had time for, I settled back "I guess he'll love me then"

Emerald laughed out loud "You're a strong, independent woman, a powerful mage, more than capable of taking out a retrieval squad without even breaking a nail; he'll hate you with a passion Miss Xanders"

"Ghost" I said, "just Ghost"

A/N: Hi peeps, It's been recommended to me that posting horrendously long complete stories is a bit of a pain for the few readers I have, so I'm making it easier by splitting this story up into chapters. This story is based on my Shadowrun RPG team and the crazy exploits that they get themselves into, all told from my character's point of view (Ghost). This was a huge campaign for us, mainly as a result of introducing two new main players to the team, who both played the game rather well for their first outing into the table top RPG world. As a result the story ended up in two distinct parts, this is the beginning of part 1, I hope you enjoy!

As always any comments just leave a review or PM me

xxx


	2. Chapter 2

The chopper landed on the waves of grass as we pulled up to the pad and a bulk of a military man stepped off. Grim faced, buzz cut, ironed trousers so sharp they could cut you, yeah he'd had training. His uniform had an insignia that I wasn't familiar with. Not a standard military officer then. That explained Emerald; no military operation would tolerate that beard.

"You've caused me a lot of paperwork Miss Xanders" the General barked

"Ghost" the echo of both I and Emerald in correction

"What?"

"It's just Ghost sir" Emerald stated "Seems Xanders is an alias"

The General gave me a stern look then rolled his eyes "That's what she _wants_ you to think Lindsey you fool, we've done our research" I had to smirk, admittedly they'd picked up my most well known aliases. And they'd found my apartment, but the point of my apartment was that I _could_ be found there. Since moving out of Torrin's I didn't have his contact list for jobs, though I admit I didn't expect my first one to result in my door being blown to bits. So these guys had looked into Xander's background, big deal, everything in there was fake.

"Very well _Ghost_ , you're here for a job, one we're willing to pay a considerable amount for"

"You already did" I said, the General shrugged off the mention of his two dead men, beside me, Emerald, or should I say _Lindsey_ went rigid, it was a subtle shift on his part but one that didn't go unnoticed by me.

"Your skills are required to prevent a group of runners from obtaining a certain artefact, a device of some importance, currently being researched. You are to stop them by any means you see fit. They are not to get their hands on it, for this we are willing to offer fifty thousand nuyen.

Fifty K is not a figure to be sniffed at by any means, but this guy had blown into my apartment. Behind me a second sedan pulled up, the Rookie got out with a large bag and my bow, my gear from the apartment. He moved over to the chopper to load everything on board.

"Curious, but why not just ask instead of getting two men killed?" I asked. The General held out a hand, the rookie removed a palm pad, on the screen was a picture of Torrin. _Damn_

"We figured you could do with a little more incentive to show you how serious we are." The General said "You _will_ take the mission" he made it a statement, I could call his bluff, he had false information on me, but Torrin was important to me, the _only_ important person to me, I couldn't take the chance.

"Fine" I said nonchalantly "But I want my apartment cleaned with a new door as well, or you can pay my security deposit" I felt Lindsey flinch next to me in amusement, the General simply grunted and nodded. _Wow, happy guy_.

"Details will be provided to you by Lindsey who will work with you, the two of you will . . ."

"Sorry no, I work alone" I interrupted

"Given the nature of the mission you _will_ be accompanied . . "

"Alone or not at all"

"Lindsey will go . . ."

" _NO_ then" I turned to go; Lindsey placed a hand on my arm to stop me, not a restraint, a plea to pause, the sharp bite of electricity had his hand retreating quickly, he took a while to catch on . . .

"Need I remind you of our leverage" The General began

"No, your leverage should be all the guarantee you need" I said "Your research should tell you that I don't work well in a group, people always end up dying, it's on my own or not at all" I stood firm. I could see the moment the General relented, smirked and strolled to the chopper. The General was speaking with Lindsey no doubt warning him about me, and there'd be the customary. . Yes there it was, the tracking device he would need to plant on me, not that his team hadn't already bugged my gear, _so predictable_. The rookie was busy tying my pack down in the chopper for the ride.

"Thank you"

"How is he?"

"It was close, he'll be scarred for life, but alive" Rookie was strained, grateful for the healing I had done, but acutely aware that it was _my_ blade that had inflicted the wounds, but then he also knew it was in defence of a threat, the conflict of his emotions was clear.

"Did you pack a small leather pouch?" he nodded

"Everything except the grappling gun" he said, _damn I might have needed that_. Digging in my pack my fingers brushed soft leather and I withdrew the pouch, my fingers brushed more leather and I smiled, my coat, a very special coat indeed. I unrolled the pouch and withdrew a paper pack that I knew contained dried dark leaves.

"Make a tea with these" I told him "have him drink half, then soak his bandages in the rest, he must drink on an empty stomach or it wont work, and it will be bitter, but don't add any sugar or sweetener" I handed over the leaves, "They break down in contact with natural sunlight, so make it up in a red room or it'll be useless" the rookie gave me a questioning look.

"Why are you helping us?" _Us_. I liked that.

"Because I'm partly responsible, I have rules about killing, only when necessary and if I have to, it has to be quick and as painless as possible, I'm not a monster, but if I have to kill you to survive I wont hesitate" I retied my pack

"Can I do something for you?" Bless

"Get out of the group and start over, they don't care about you, these groups, to them you're nothing more than a meat shield, a grunt. Take your partner with you, and grow old together" I told him, there was a moment of fear, I understood, he was young, but all he'd ever known was the military life, his partner would be just the same if not more so. I sighed, "listen, go to Torrin, or the place you think he is, he'll have people watching, wait there, it could be a while but someone will speak to you eventually, tell them that "Freedom is hard to come by" and that "Casper wants to know the score of the game" then do what ever they tell you, it'll be OK" shock came over his face as he realised what I was giving him, a get out clause. He composed himself and nodded, held out a hand

"Sorry, I'm charged remember, can go off at any time" I said waving my hands. Rookie did something either incredibly stupid or brave, I'm not sure, but he took my hand and shook it anyway, the hairs on his arms stood with static

"I'll take the chance" he said, then let go and left the chopper, returning to his sedan. The General was getting into the sedan that we had arrived in. Lindsey climbed into the chopper beside me. I was staring at my hand

"Hey Ghost, you OK?" Lindsey asked

"Yeah sure" I replied, contact, _physical contact_ , the first since Tibet. So far everyone I'd touched had received some kind of shock, one guy in the grocery store had been full blown electrocuted, but the rookie had survived, did this mean I was learning control? I doubted it, he was probably just lucky.

The chopper lifted and Lindsey had to shout above the noise "Time I showed you what you're dealing with" He switched on a palm pad "these guys are the real deal Ghost, dangerous, several known underground factions have gone up against these guys and either disappeared or died. They're brash and suicidal at times, but most importantly they've never failed"

"First time for everything" The screen scrolled showing dates, faces of contacts, many had MIA or Deceased printed across them. "What was their last known location?" I asked

"Rumours were they'd been killed in a crash, the whole group, so investigations into them ceased after the wreckage was found, or what was left of it, nothing could have survived that, but that was until one of the group was seen in Seattle making enquiries about the new technology, only two of the original have been spotted together, the third is still missing, maybe not everyone got out" He scrolled through his pad to bring up a photo file as he continued. There's a mage, strong one too, pulls some seriously powerful levitation magic, manipulation, but it's the technomancer you have to watch, all the crazy moves come from him, he hits a system and decimates it before he's even detected, sharp shooter too, so not completely reliant on the matrix in a fight. At first the General wanted you to infiltrate the group, but given what these guys are capable of I think shadowing then assassination are in best order."

"I'm not an assassin for hire, that's not what I do" I said "I'll stop them my own way, just who am I dealing with anyway" Lindsey opened the picture file and showed me the screen, and for a second I wasn't sure to laugh or not "I don't think infiltration will be a problem"

"What makes you say that?" Lindsey saw me smile and connected the dots "You know these guys?!" I smiled again

"Sure do, he's my landlord"

The chopper flew for about forty minutes, we sat in silence for the most part, at first Lindsey had asked questions about my relationship with Lathain; however I didn't much feel like giving the game away. We started to hit a little turbulence as we hit the mountain area surrounding our destination, there was a military style base within the heart of the mountain, a parking lot with a few Humvees and tanks out from about the size of three football fields was all that could be seen of what had been briefed to be an extensive facility.

"So you want me to stop Lathain getting his hands on this device?" I had clarified with Lindsey; he had regarded me with those eyes of his

"That's the plan at least" he said "there's also a bonus to your pay if you can find out the location of the device and comm. us"

"Wait, the device isn't yours?" I asked, Lindsey gritted his teeth in annoyance, he'd said too much, but he conceded and continued anyway

"No it isn't, but we want to get it before it goes to auction, there is a general Napper at the base who used to work for us on the inside, she has since turned to their side in the development of the weapon, she was due to fly to Chicago in three days to auction the device."

"And you want me to steal it" I said

"Steal it _back_ " Lindsey said "Someone has hired Lathain to do the same job, we were hoping you'd get there first, get the device before it went to auction"

"So what you're saying is that you can't afford it, neither can some of your competitors and you also want to get back at this Napper dude"

"He's a She" Lindsey corrected, whatever "We have heard some disturbing rumours about what goes on in the lower levels too" he said "human experiments, with weird meta human cross overs being developed"

"You mean like Frankenstein's monster" Lindsey gave me a blank look and shrugged, he didn't get the reference, shame, every one should read Mary Shelly. "So who hired Lathain? And if this is your base, or at least partly then why don't you know what's going down underground?"

"It's a part military and part private owned base, the military have a presence there but the land is owned by our company, however the military coops have decided to gradually buy us out bit by bit, we now only have real access to the upper floors, and the person leading the buy out?"

"Napper?" I guessed. He nodded

"Whatever they're doing then it can't be good, Napper was hired six years ago because she is ruthless and unsympathetic to the animal experimentation which was going on at the time, she was suppose to go in on the military side and find out what they were up to with the buy outs, the off limits areas, and to try and get a look in at this weapon they had started to develop, something that was suppose to change the battlefield"

"Change the battle field?" I was curious now, a spy gone rogue had turned into their worst nightmare, she would know exactly how they operated, what they wanted and so could anticipate their every move. It's a very bad idea to let an unstable person into such a role; unless of course she was playing the double agent and biding her time for the right moment. So we were potentially looking for a weapon that could change the very course of any battlefield? That was nothing new, when magic had begun creeping back into the world mages were employed by military groups as the ultimate fighters, nothing could block their attacks, they were highly paid and the first target in any fight, so maybe the device was aimed at magic users.

"That's what they're saying, we owned most of the base, and most of the tech, but as time has gone on we've been shut out more and more" he showed me a round plan of the base, most of the levels were in red, particularly the bottom ones "We hired a lot of people, but none of them have ever left, given the buy out that's been happening we need to know where our men are"

"You think they switched sides?" I asked

"Possible, I know a few that might make the jump but I doubt it would be all of them, you have to understand Ghost, no one ever leaves this facility"

"Then how do you know what's going on?" I asked

"We have some working camera's in some of the areas" he admitted "There are a lot of people there, and it looks like in the last few years they've made some major modifications to the unit, they've dug all the way into the caves, across and down below" he brought up a map, outdated from three years prior. He overlaid an image of the rock face and zoomed out. "All of this area is now under construction, I couldn't tell you how far back the base now goes, but if these plans have spread anywhere near as quickly as the amount of incoming steel suggests then it'll be a real warren down there"

"Does your out of date intel tell me where the weapon is likely to be held?" I asked taking in a mental map of the facility, I noted another area which might be another way in, at the base of the mountain side, where the ventilation was likely exhausting from.

"Not really" he said "But we've a few still on our side, last we heard our teams were separating from the military and starting to push back, there are a bunch of rebels causing trouble but we can't know for sure if they're with Napper or against her, all I have is a comm. image of the insignia they're using" Lindsey showed me a blurry photo of a shield with two pistols crossing over, a ball of mage energy in the centre.

"You think there's a mutiny going on?" I asked

"I have no idea, but if they've been keeping people for all this time underground it wouldn't surprise me if those working for the military side decided to lash out"

"Why haven't you tried to get in before?" I asked, Lindsey winced at the question and wouldn't meet my eyes, which could only mean one thing. "You already have" I guessed "and they're either dead or trapped" Lindsey nodded numbly "that explains why you brought me in, to you I'm expendable" my voice was clipped and hard "I'll find out what I can for you but I'm not putting myself in unnecessary danger for you, I'm being paid to stop Lathain, maybe retrieve this device for you, but other than that you're on your own"

Lindsey looked as though he would say something before the pilot interrupted to let us know we were heading closer to the base. The joint ownership was apparent by the flags blowing by the gateway, though from the small presence of Lindsey's team at the gate compared to the newer occupant's numbers you could tell that the chopper would not really be welcome, I might have to get in another way. . .

The chopper began to circle the facility waiting for landing clearance in the tiny parking lot. It looked like there was some commotion down below at the front gates where a huge lorry waited. I took a look around the surrounding area, mostly rocky and bare, nothing much to hide in, if things turned south and I had to get out then I would need to use my magic to get out unseen. I had noticed a few caves as we had flown over, it was likely these were the caves I had seen on the map. There was little disturbance of the flora in that area so it might be unused, it might at the very least be a good place to start.

As the chopper came in to land I took more of an interest on what was happening on the ground, I really shouldn't have been surprised to see Lathain stood arguing with a dozen armed guards, backed up by Wizbit and a man I didn't recognise.

"Any idea what's going on?" I asked, Lindsey com'd the gate a moment.

"Looks like they're trying to get in the base on false ID's and someone tripped the system for a hack" _really?_ Lathain was getting sloppy or their systems were super high grade, Lathain had no real trouble hacking into anything.

"Let me move them on" I said, Lindsey shot me a look

"How?"

"Just do it" I said, if I was lucky I could work this to both mine and Lathain's advantage, but I needed to know what the elf knew first.

"You know if you fail" he warned, it was a stupid threat, and it gave me an insight into how they'd tricked me here, if they really had Torrin they wouldn't need to threaten, this "reminder" was to try and keep my loyalty, I would bet anything that Torrin was safe.

"Just land this pile of crap and let me talk to him" I snapped, my patience wearing thin, I was usually rather good at reading people but they had gotten me this far without me figuring it was a bluff. Oh well if I play along for a while I might just get myself some extra cash.

The chopper landed and I grabbed my pack pulling it on quickly and jumping from the chopper, I turned to Lindsey

"Get us off the base and I'll contact you when I know more about what's going on" I said, he looked wary, his eyes slightly on the collar of my shirt where the bug had been placed then nodded. He figured he could keep track of me using the bug, well I could sort that. My electrical short was only temporary after all. Lindsey's face fell as he realised his tracker wouldn't stay put for long. "How do I know you'll do your job?" he asked

"You don't, but I'll give you my word I'll keep you as up to date as I am able" I told him. He looked nervous and conflicted, but he didn't really have much choice but to do as I said, he nodded and waved to permit me to leave.

I strode towards Lathain and the group, the guards didn't see me until I was shouting them aside, I paid them little attention as I stood in front of a surprised elf and mage, there was also a third man who looked thoroughly confused

"Ghost?" The elf said, at just over six foot he was like all elves of this world, stunning, with amazing eyes and a sharp sense of humour, I hadn't seen or spoken to him since getting back from Tibet, little wonder since contact, physical contact with me would fry his internal comm. and bio-ware. Wizbit regarded me with curiosity and perhaps a little fear, Tibet had shaken him badly, he'd grown a beard since I'd seen him last, he looked old now, older than he should at least.

"Lathain, Wizbit" I said cheerily "You're just in time to pick me up"


	3. Chapter 3

I turned to one of the guards "What's the problem here?" I asked, the guard shot a look to Lindsey who nodded. Lathain and Wizbit stared at me, Lathain barely containing his surprise.

"Err well Miss, um ma'am these err men here tried to enter the facility"

"On what grounds?" I asked, again a shifted glance to Lindsey before starting

"They said they were here to collect something" I smiled at the guard and turned to Lathain

"Indeed he is" I said "Sorry I'm late boys, shall we be moving now?" I moved off, Wizbit gave me a questioning look, I shot him a wink hoping he'd take the lead, thankfully he followed, shooting off a sloppy salute before dragging a very confused Lathain with him, their coffee coloured friend close behind. The guards watched us go, rifles at the ready just in case.

The stranger with them moved to the side of his truck, a huge black monster of a machine, opening the door for me with a slight smile, his black hair fell slightly in his dark brown eyes which were wide and questioning, he looked as confused as Lathain

"Ma'am" he nodded as I got aboard. Lathain climbed in beside me, a million questions on his face, Wizbit got in the back as the driver got in behind the wheel "Convoy" he said putting out a hand.

"I wouldn't touch her" Wizbit warned before I had a chance to, Convoy withdrew his hand looking confused and concerned.

"Don't mind him" I said "I'm just electrically charged, kind of like an eel, happened by accident, but it's just best not to touch me just in case." Convoy nodded as thought this explanation was good enough for him. Once the engine roared to life and we were backing out Lathain exploded on me.

"What the HELL are you doing here?!" he yelled, his face furious "What was that?!" I shifted in my seat so I could face him.

"THAT was me saving your ass from being shot" I told him "Now tell me about this device you've been asked to steal" His face fell, not much of a poker player this one.

"How do you know about that?" Now it was Wizbit's turn to ask the questions.

"Because I've been hired to stop you" I said easily "Something about this stinks to me, so what's your deal in all this?"

"Why should we trust you?" Lathain asked, my anger flared and I raised a hand to slap him, stopping myself just in time, with the charge I had building I would need to vent soon and I couldn't risk electrocuting him.

"You're a real bastard" I whispered

"Woah, woah there" Convoy said, he looked down the road to a resting place and started pulling over "I gather you guys have history but what the fuck is going on?"

"Lathain and Ghost have worked together before" Wizbit supplied "We all have, now it seems that Ghost has been hired to stop our secondary objective, we'll deal with that in a minute" he turned to me "Ghost, what do you know about the facility"

"Just that it's owned by two companies" I told him "One is military the other is privately owned but are slowly being bought out, one level at a time" I glared at Lathain "Oh and there are rumours about experimentations" I said "In the lower levels, but that's about it, there's some kind of device they're working on that I need to steal before it goes to auction" Wizbit took all this in and nodded

"We're also looking into rumours of a weapon and if there is one to get hold of it, but our first priority is the lower levels, there ARE experiments running down there and we've been approached by some of the families of some missing people to investigate"

"Missing people? So who's asked you about the weapon?" I asked; concerned family didn't seem the type to hire a set of runners to steal a weapon.

"Turns out news got out that the families were looking to hire someone, this got to our secondary employer who asked us to check it out" I frowned, something about that didn't seem quite right . . .

"So do we have plans of the facility?" I asked, I wondered if their information was more up to date than mine but Wizbit shook his head and looked at Lathain who could only glare back at Wizbit who smirked

"Well we would have done if _someone_ hadn't cocked up and set off the alarm" he laughed, Lathain's death glare continued, odd he'd normally have quipped back by now . . .

"Err Wizbit, did you freeze Lathain?" I asked

"Yup" he grinned, a full out grin, I was suddenly very worried about Wizbit, he'd not seemed the type to grin before, maybe Lathain's attitude was catching. Wizbit dropped the spell on the warning that he needed to keep his trap shut.

"So what's the plan?" Convoy asked.

"Get in, investigate, get out" Wizbit said flatly

"But how are we going to get in if they won't let us through the door?" Convoy seemed worried

"What about the cave systems at the base of the facility?" I asked, Wizbit nodded approvingly. "Bases as large as this need to circulate air to keep people inside from suffocating, which means there has to be a ventilation area, another opening" I explained to Lathain's confused face

"I noticed something about areas needed for ventilation, I can't see anything top side so I guess they vent into the caves, worth a shot" said Convoy. Lathain shuddered and muttered something about dark cold places that smelled funny. Guess he didn't like being underground much.

"So we check out the facility's air con system, see if we can get in that way, take a look around and get out as quick as we can" I said, Convoy slid me a sideways look then back to Wizbit. "I saw a likely spot on my way here" I told him.

"Forgive me for speaking out of turn and I know it seems like Wizbit and Lathain have your back but I have to ask. If your mission is to stop us, then why are you even here? And why would you help us look around, we're here to get people out first and foremost, families, with children too, no offense but I don't want to risk their lives so that you can complete _your_ objective" he shrugged and turned back to the wheel "Just saying" he said.

"You don't know me" I told him "So I'll tell you this only once, I would _never_ risk an innocent life to complete one of my missions, I'll help you get the people out then we'll deal with the device" Convoy turned to Wizbit.

"Is she for real?" He asked, Wizbit and Lathain both nodded, Convoy shrugged again "Fair enough, she's in"


	4. Chapter 4

Convoy drove us round the mountain passes looking for a way down to the ravine, we found a sheltered spot not far from the facility, but it was up high, we'd have to climb down and set up rope and things for the escape of the families. Convoy's truck was kitted with all that we needed to set this up. Wizbit used a force wave to cover the rope in dust from the mountain side to camouflage it from any lookouts; he left a simple marker that could be astrally perceived so we would know where to look for it on the way back.

"Ghost, I think you should stay with Convoy on this part, when the families come out they'll need someone to help them find their way to the truck, and no offense Wizbit, but she's a lot less scary looking than you are" Lathain said "We'll get in and find them all, then once they're out we can talk business. Convoy, is your truck able to hold the number of people we're expecting?"

"It might get a little crowded but shouldn't be too bad" he confirmed.

"We'll need you for the initial infiltration" Wizbit said to me "After that you're to wait here" I shrugged; this was their mission, not mine. I rolled electricity over my body to vent it to the ground, that meant I should be able to get in without frying the sensors, or anything else I touched. Convoy watched the process with interest.

"Lets go then"

The caves were dark and smelled of bats; Lathain looked immensely uncomfortable as he stepped through piles of guano. At a nod from the elf we were clear of nodes and sensors; I cracked a few glow sticks to light the way. There was a steady stream of warm air coming from this particular cave, of the three we had found which looked promising this was the only one where air was coming out of it, not into it. With the air being warm too this meant air con units were likely nearby. The cave split into two, I lit a match and watched it blow out taking the left passage and dropping a glow stick as I went. Wizbit stuck close beside me, as humans we didn't have the superior vision that allowed Lathain to walk without light. Soon the hum of the air cons could be heard and it wasn't long before we found the unit, a large set of fans and pipes seemed to jut out from the rock. There was a small station there too with a door. Of course locked and only opened from the inside, this was maintenance access should the unit need repairs. We needed to get in.

"I'll sort this" I said flexing my back and removing my long coat and utility belt, I might just be able to squeeze through one of the vents, but I needed to loose some things first. "Wizbit, a boost?" The mage dutifully gave me a pair of hands to lift me to one of the pipe openings; I threw a glow stick in and watched it rattle down, there looked to be a fairly sharp bend, and I lost sight of the stick, but as it clattered to a halt there was no cutting of fans or spraying of fluid which meant there was no major fan down there. Alright, time to go. I slid in head first so I could see where I was going, the metal sides pressed against my skin. A tight fit, even for me, the pale green glow guided me to a grate which looked down over a thin corridor, the door could just be seen, I gave the grate an experimental tug, it came away with little resistance. Someone had tried to seal it with a sticky substance like PVA glue, why not just bolt them? I wasn't going to complain about the shoddy workmanship since it allowed me to get into the corridor, if this was how the other vents were attached then I might find getting around would be easier up above where I couldn't be seen, it was also noteworthy that the vents opened slightly further down, not so tight spacing then. I jumped down, grate in hand and opened the door, a simple turning locking mechanism, very low key. I smiled at the simplicity of it, had we known then Wizbit might have simply been able to turn it from his end.

Lathain grinned at me from the other side. "Ah fresh air" he smiled and stepped inside handing me my coat and belt, I resisted the urge to tell him it was probably heavily recycled and so not fresh, but I admit it had the added bonus of not being tainted with bat. I left the boys to go their own way, letting Wizbit know I would leave a clear trail for the families to follow then headed back towards the truck, cracking glowsticks as I went, the sticks were basics and would last only a couple of hours.

Convoy was waiting at the cave entrance just inside; he seemed uncomfortable away from the safety of his truck, he stood pulling leaves from the bush that grew at the entrance, rolling them between his fingers before flicking them aside.

"They're in" I told him, he nodded, a little of the worry falling from his face. "So who are these families then?" I asked, curious but not expecting an answer.

"They're the families of the scientists and mages who work in the facility" he said "Most of them just disappeared overnight, I dug into it and quickly found that they had all disappeared within a three day period across the whole of Indiana and Kentucky"

"You think they were taken on purpose for leverage?" I asked and he nodded.

"Makes sense, they're working on something big, maybe not something nice. If the rumours are to be believed they're creating a weapon and that doesn't sit well with a lot of folk, so I guess the military had to get themselves some insurance of cooperation" He flicked another couple of leaves away.

"When did all this start happening?" I asked, Convoy seemed to have an emotional attachment to this that I wasn't seeing, but I wasn't sure if I should push my luck with someone I didn't know.

"Six months ago" he said "There are a lot of strange things that have been going on in there, weird shipments, deliveries and things that just don't add up"

"Weird how?" Now my curiosity was peaked, if I knew what was coming in it might give me some more info on what kind of weapon they were creating.

"Well the game deliveries was one" he said "Hunters from all over bringing in creatures labelled as "Exotic" I mean what's exotic these days? And then there's the medical facilities on site, geneticists, mages, technomancers, even the food they're bringing in, some of it is pretty high class stuff, rare too. Rumours are it's genetic testing, it all started about five or six years ago, the rumours kicked up after a pair of jaguars were listed on a delivery note to the facility"

"Jaguars? As in the cats?" What was going on? It was around that time when the military had come in and started to buy out the facility.

"Yep, as in fur and four legs and a craving for meat and all things prey like" he said, he paused then and looked at his comm. link, he face twisted "Damn"

"What?"

"Comm. signal has gone" he said "For both of them, all I got is static" he stood and moved off in the direction of the truck "We have to boost the signal somehow"

"Can I help?" I asked following, I didn't like the idea of Wizbit and Lathain being stuck in there without help. I pointed out the marker and we climbed to the truck. Convoy climbed aboard and started flipping switches on a control panel.

"No, no, no, no, NO!" he hit the panel in frustration. "It's gone, the signal, there's too much interference, whether it's magical or just the density of the rock I've no idea, but I can't contact them." He slumped in his seat, head in his hands biting at his thumb nail "Think boy think" he muttered to himself.

"What about something on the inside to boost the outgoing signal, or jacking the internal comm. of the facility to steal their wavelength?" I suggested. Convoy shook his head.

"If Lathain couldn't crack their security then I don't stand much chance" he said then paused "Wait, what did you say?"

"Err we could jack the internal comm.?" I supplied, he jumped to his feet.

"No, no the first bit, about putting a booster inside"

"Yeah, can't we put something inside the facility to boost the signal?" he reached to clap me on the back then thought better of it, Wizbit's warning flashing to his head.

"Think you could get inside and place a few boosters for me?" he asked, I grinned

"Would love to"

Convoy spent the next half hour tinkering with some devices which I assumed were boosters, I waited nervously outside the truck keeping my eye on the cave opening in case the families began to appear. After a time he re-emerged from the truck, eyes on the cave a moment before asking silently if there was any movement, I shook my head, he looked disappointed.

"We good?" he nodded and threw me a small pack, inside were about two dozen small devices, each with a sucker pad for easy attachment.

"What's your comm. number?" he asked "So I can keep track of the signal"

"Don't have one" I said, he looked shocked, in this day and age it was surprising to see someone without one, even fugitives seemed to have a disposable one, but I didn't carry one for an entirely different reason "And I wouldn't offer me one either, that's a whole avenue of crap you don't want to go down" I told him, now he really looked confused

"So how am I going to keep track?" he asked

"No idea, maybe when you hear Lathain's stupid music"

"Music?"

"Yeah he usually has some kind of soundtrack blasting internally, makes him feel like he's in a movie or something" I swung the pack over my shoulder; removing my long coat and belt again, if I was going to be traveling through air ducts I didn't want it scraping along the sides and causing noise; besides I had my magic, a slight pistol and a couple of handy knives if I needed them "Where do you want them?"

"Every fifty meters or so, corridors, rooms, wherever you can get them"

"Air ducts OK?"

"Fine"

I half climbed, half slid down the bank from the truck to the cave entrance, Convoy close behind. At the bottom I sent a slight wave to the top, scattering dust over the rope ladder, it didn't cover as easily as Wizbit's cool move but it would certainly be better than nothing, and at least Convoy didn't need mage sight to see where we had to climb, just in case I didn't get out before the families.

"Are you sure you're going to be alright without a comm. unit?" Convoy asked "What if the guys come back and you're stuck in there?"

"I wouldn't worry" I told him "I can get out of anywhere, I'll drop the boosters then take twenty to look around for the pair, once I find them they can let you know by comm., if I can't find them after twenty minutes I'll make my way out" Convoy nodded, he seemed genuinely concerned for me, _sweet guy_.

At the cave entrance I left Convoy just inside and followed the glow stick trail to the door, though this was open I quickly jumped back into the open grate. I would move better if I knew I couldn't be seen. I clicked a booster by the grate, number one, now for the other twenty three.


	5. Chapter 5

The ducts were quite spacious and at roughly fifty foot intervals were small control panels, I couldn't help but smile, they had their own issues with signal down here, they provided me with easy to find markers so I could place the comm. boosters confidently whilst being able to move around up here freely, I soon found that all the grates were attached the same as the one by the air con unit, simply stuck with a glue like substance. Reassuring, as it meant I could get down from here quickly if I needed to. I moved quickly and silently, creating a mental map in my head of where I was, occasionally making notes of door numbers I could see through the grates I passed in case I needed to find my way out on the ground.

Suddenly the ducts shook violently and a rumbling noise rolled over, I pressed against the sides of the duct to steady myself, praying that it didn't collapse. After a minute or two the shaking and rumbling subsided. Was it an explosion? I hoped not as that would not help us with the escape, I muttered under my breath that Lathain had better be behaving himself.

A short while later I came to a cross roads in the ducts, taking a quick look below the grates I found I was in a dorm area, I slowed and moved more carefully, with bunk beds close to the ceiling there was an increased risk someone would see me. Most of the dorms were empty, some had children's toys scattered across the floor, these were the family rooms. I sincerely hoped that they were empty because the guys had succeeded in their work.

This hope was confirmed as I passed over an office of very panicked looking guards frantically trying to scan cameras to find the missing people. It seemed that letting the captives loose had triggered some unspoken command within a resistance cell to start their uprising, perhaps the break out had been planned for a while. The important thing was that we had them out, good. I moved on and fitted my last booster, leaving the bag behind; I didn't want it causing noise as it swung around.

I made my way back a little towards the dorm area, but activity on the ground was too much to safely get down, there were calls for head officers to meet. I figured now would be a good time to get down and out, I cast my mind back to an area just a few turnings from here, the corridor had few doorways and seemed more just a connection area between units, little foot traffic. It would do; it didn't take me long to find the right area, the grate was smaller than some of the others, sitting on a hinge, but still sealed with the same crappy sticky substance as the rest.

The grate flipped down silently, I eased my fingers from the grating and carefully lowered my head over the edge to check the corridor before me. The coast was clear this way; I spun slightly to look behind me only to stare down the barrel of a heavy Rugar pistol.

 _Shit._

"You're far too pretty to work in maintenance, and even if you were one of ours you're probably armed and in a section that's been designated as off limits; so I would slide out of the vent slowly with your hands up if I were you"

I focused past the gun point to the man that held it; intensely blue eyes stared at me from behind a pair of thick rimmed glasses. He wore the blazer of the base, a rough insignia hastily sewn to the upper arm; too rough a job to be standard issue, a rogue perhaps? The patch emblem roughly matching the one I had been shown by Lindsey, and I'd heard from the basic chatter of a resistance movement, was he a part of that? Everything else was home owned, in top condition but not standard regulation, his hair long enough to fall into his face. No, definitely not a standard grunt then, were it not for the patch I would have taken him as officer material, there was something else about him too; the way he held that pistol of his told me he wouldn't hesitate if he needed it. I snuck a quick glance down the corridor behind him; empty but there were a few doors, I would have to be careful not to make too much noise when I took him out. I slowly placed my hands either side of my shoulders on the lip of the vent opening.

"If you're thinking of taking me out quietly I assure you that isn't going to happen" I hid the surprise from my face, had he been reading my mind? Probably not; though now that I suspected it I thought I could feel the light tingle at the base of my spine that marked him as a mage, faint though.

"I only make a fuss if it's really necessary" I told him slowly drawing my body head first from the vent, weighting my body slightly to the left "And in this case . . ." Quick as lightning I spun my body, freeing my legs and arching them to connect with the guards face. The gun fell and skittered behind me as I dropped to the ground ". . . I guess it's necessary"

The man blinked to clear his vision and took a step back; had he been a centimetre closer it would have been lights out for him, guess we'd have to do this the hard way. With his hands raised, feet placed, he took a stance; so he was trained in unarmed combat, well unlucky for him so was I.

I dodged his first blow easily, narrowly avoided the second, wind whistled by my ear; he was using his size to press the advantage. I dodged, ducking under his arms turning to spin a kick at his solar plexus. It hit but he caught my foot, rolling inside my thigh he lifted me by my leg to slam into the wall. Sharp pain exploded across my back and I hissed, my fire berry hair fell in front of my eyes blinding me. Between the strands I saw his spare hand come towards me, I blocked and hit him square in the nose with my free hand, he let go of me and I fell to the floor, no longer supported by his arm. I dodged a knee that came up to meet my face. I rolled and kicked his feet from under him as I went; he hit the ground hard, glasses skittered from his face across the metal floor.

I rolled again and stood; he rolled onto his back and flipped to his feet. I swung in quick using his blindness to my advantage, too late I realised my mistake, a heavy steel toe boot hit me square in the chest knocking me backwards, I landed in an undignified heap on my ass, bruised. I caught sight of his glasses on the floor, the glass thick, he shouldn't be able to see . . . I looked at him more carefully a I stood brushing his boot print off my vest; his eyes clear and focused; either those glasses weren't high strength or they were for show, and if they were for show then what else was I underestimating?

He moved at me, I jumped high and gripped the open grating using it to swing my leg up to connect with his face; observant bugger must have anticipated something like this as his arm was up and ready. Caught and pinned, his momentum driving me back so I had to let go of the vent, he didn't however, anticipate the other leg swinging to connect at that most tender spot that men so love to protect. A vindictive move on my part but this guy was nails and annoying me. He went down, hard. Unfortunately for me, trapped by him so did I; I landed back first, the weight of him crushed me knocking out my breath a moment.

"That . . ." he gasped as he pinned an arm trying to hit him ". . . was a low blow . . . could have hurt someone with that" he rolled his leg up to pin across my chest and pulled my arm back in a professional pin, pain exploded across my shoulder, I gritted my teeth, from this position I had little leverage, but . . . I bided a few precious seconds

"Well, I wasn't sure if it'd work, your average grunt doesn't really carry much below the waist" despite the insult he actually grinned at me, finding the humour in the remark

"I guess that means I'm not like other "grunts" then" he said applying a little more pressure, I hissed I just needed a few more seconds . . . "who are you and why are you here?" he asked I felt the pull at my mind, easy but there, like a compulsion to answer, the pressure on my arm increased again; that was it!

I pulled hard, yelled out in the pain, using the force of my pull to lift my legs up and over the man's head and round his throat, instinct made him let go of my arm and clasp my legs but the force of momentum was too much and he went down, I rolled over him pinning him, He brought a leg up and round, unable to defend my left side with my dislocated shoulder he easily got the grip he needed and we went down together, neither able to move.

"You dislocated your own shoulder?!" he groaned at me "You're nuts"

"Nope, just using what I have" I retorted, I flexed what muscles I could, assessing the situation, a true stalemate with my shoulder on fire, I wouldn't be able to get up, but if I put him out . . . I squeezed my legs a little but I couldn't get the right angle to cut off his air, I hated stalemates, I needed an exit strategy, my eyes caught sight of his gun belt, if I could just . . .

"So are you going to answer my question?" he asked, his voice distracted, probably plotting something, he seemed the type, too much like myself, which meant I didn't just suspect he was up to something, I _knew_ it.

"Nope"

"Really?" he sounded genuinely surprised, maybe he figured his magic should have provided him with the answers he needed, well they didn't work on me, I guess today just wasn't his day

"Really, really" just a centimetre more

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours" he said, that's when I sensed it, that pull again at my conscious, he was trying to persuade me with more than just natural charm, I huffed and took a breath, he smelled of leather and cinnamon, sweet but hardy. He smelled of home, of warmth, the leather scent pulled my mind back to times out on the hunt with Torrin; the scent so out of place in this underground hell hole, like he didn't belong here. I felt something then, a longing to be outside, and I caught the image of rain and huge trees. What?! Get a grip! I shook off the sense, more of his magic or had I just been hit too hard? Perhaps his mind magic was backfiring and I could see what he was imagining?

"So where do you want to go from here?" I asked, my fingers found their target, if I could only remove it from the holster without him sensing it.

"Well I was thinking if you weren't doing anything later we could maybe go for a drink" he said, he almost sounded like he meant it. I was glad that in my position I couldn't see his face, though I had a fabulous view of his firm backside. . .

"Think I'll have to pass" I said quickly averting my eyes "not really dating material"

"Really? Because if you weren't trying to kill me right about now I think we could have made something work out" that push again, slight, barely there but noticeable, for me anyway. I shuddered; the floor was cold, time to move.

"That's sweet" I said gritting my teeth ready "But I gotta go" I ignored the flare of temptation, not sure if it was me or him, I would have to have a sit down with my hormones and tell them all about fraternizing with the enemy! I leant back and released a leg; automatically his grip shifted, anticipating an escape, perfect. I brought my heel down into his face and I heard a crack. He released his legs and I scrambled up; he got there first, one of my blades in his hands; sneaky bastard, he really did think just like I did.

"Sorry" he said "but I can't let you go" Blood had exploded across his face and down his t-shirt, a slight sheen of sweat on his brow from the effort of the fight, he held my knife competently, ready and trained, he would do what he had to, and so would I. I smiled and raised the gun; his face fell as he recognised it as his own.

"Sorry" I said "But I don't have the time to hang around" He raised his hands in surrender, not a defeated look, but an accepting one, he couldn't take me out whilst I had this in my hand. Shame he didn't know how much I hated guns, he might have had the balls to come after me again. I made a mental note to stay as far away from him as I possibly could and to get off the base as quickly as possible. I glanced behind him, he blocked the corridor I wanted to go down, but I would simply swing back around.

I backed off down the corridor, gun aimed. He simply watched me go, blood still pouring down his face from his broken nose, I felt bad for him, it must be quite painful, but then my shoulder was on fire; sure I'd done that to myself but he'd caused it so fair game.

When there was a safe distance I gave him a wink, turned and sprinted down the corridor; ten feet to the turning, I was away!

Suddenly the ground beneath me was slick and slippery; I went down, HARD. Sliding head long into the wall at the end with a crack, I grew dizzy a moment, my hands wouldn't grip the floor . . . it was cold; too cold . . . I looked down to find my hands on ice! He'd frozen the floor! So he _was_ a mage, damn it!

My eyes focused on him striding down the corridor, setting his nose with a snap on the way, he barely hissed at the pain! Just who was this guy? The falling flakes of snow, moisture in the air that had frozen with his attack peppered his hair as he strode forward, sure and easy strides. I had to move, there was a very real chance that he could kill me, _come on MOVE!_ Before I could clear my head he was in front of me. I stood and he smacked aside the gun; I moved to punch him, but with my shoulder still out there was no force, I only hurt myself more as he caught it in one hand, his other hand gripped the knee that swung up to meet him. He lifted me swiftly and easily as if I weighed nothing and pinned me to the wall, my back quickly freezing from the slick ice, and with both feet off the floor I had little I could do. I punched him in the face with my free hand, he rolled his body slightly, using the weight of him to pin me there whilst he gripped my other hand.

"You are a damn hell cat" he hissed, those blue eyes of his stared at me, intense, I suppressed a shudder. From the strength of his gaze, the cold of the wall or fear I didn't know "You should apologise" his voice little more than a whisper.

Desperate I head butted his nose, cracked it again, he simply shook it off! This guy just would not go down! I arched my back and head butted him again with more force, he hissed but didn't drop me; his pin strong, he instead moved his arms to pin both of mine under one of his large hands; shackled at the wrist he now had a free hand to first wipe away the blood before placing a hand beneath my throat.

"Do it" I whispered "Cos if you don't I'll take you down" he stared at me long and hard, he didn't laugh, didn't joke as I expected. He seemed to be waiting for something, judging me, expecting something. His hand moved around my neck, finger tips brushing my hair, his thumb over my throat, lips parted as if to speak; then his blue eyes fixed on mine, suddenly softer but yet even more intense. Then slowly his eyes closed and he leant forward; his lips brushed mine, gentle and soft. I felt heat flare everywhere, my breath caught in my throat. It felt . . . felt . . .

What was I doing?!

I moved to head butt him again, bucked to get free, an arm came loose and I grabbed him by the throat, his eyes went wide from the surprise of the attack; his spare hand gripped my wrist, but my hold was strong, I stared into his blue eyes, angry for a moment, but there it was, or should I say wasn't, no sense of magic, no sense of . . . well anything, there was no maliciousness, no force only. . . I loosened my grip and leaned in, he flinched away a moment until I kissed him, his eyes widened in surprise again then kissed back, intense and all fire, he let go of my other arm pulling me closer, lifting me higher so I could wrap my legs around his waist. There was heat and need, I couldn't see anything beyond him, could only breath in the scent of leather and cinnamon, I could feel the charge building, strong firm hands and need, I needed . . . I broke off the kiss, eyes wide, what was I thinking, this was . . . was . . . He immediately sensed the change, breathing deep, husky he lowered me to the floor and took a step back. My body felt cold away from him, that moment of fire being whipped away; my pulse was racing.

"I'm, I'm sorry" I said voice deep, bad Ghost, contain yourself!

"It was my fault I . . ." he began

"No, not that" I said, my legs collapsing from under me from their shaking. "This" I let the charge go. A huge volt of electricity whipped across the floor; using his ice attack against him it carried the charge straight to the guy before me. His whole body stiffened from the shock; those azure eyes going wide a moment before collapsing unconscious at my feet.

I felt bad for him; I really did but I had to get to Lathain. I slowly rose unsteadily to my feet; smacked my shoulder into the wall to put it back into place and moved down the corridor casting back one last look at him, I tried not to let my sadness show.


	6. Chapter 6

I wandered slightly dazed for a few minutes down corridors, ducking into doorways and other corridors to avoid being seen, trying to rub some warmth back into me, my clothing damp from the ice; there was a lot of commotion about the escape of the families, some of the main scientists had also taken the opportunity to escape. The news it seemed was taken one of two ways by the people of the base, many were furious, these seemed mostly the higher officials as they stormed down corridors, a frightened private in tow taking notes and nodding furiously, and then there were those who seemed excited about the escape, others mystified how they had gotten out, one guy was heard commenting that he'd been looking for a way out for months.

Overall the escape had certainly ignited whatever resistance cell was in the facility, though at this point I still couldn't work out if this resistance was part of the military or part of the private corporation that Lindsey worked for. It may even be a third party all together. I recalled Lindsey saying that there were people who had been in this facility for years, maybe something in them had snapped?

It was nearly my twenty minute deadline before I found Wizbit, or should I say Wizbit found me, cloaked under invisibility I ran straight into him

"Ghost you're bleeding, what are you even doing here?" he said dropping his cover

"It's not mine" I told him hastily, trying to move on, he caught me by the arm and I hissed with the pain in my shoulder, he frowned at me, pulling me into a room with a plain desk and chair

"Sit" he ordered, though he didn't physically touch me I could feel the heat of the magic as he healed me, I could have tried to heal it myself but my mind wasn't working as it should have been

"We're leaving, the refugees are out, Convoy is waiting for us, but I don't know how long he'll wait" I told him about my twenty minute deadline.

"So how'd you get the bruises?"

"A guy gave me some trouble" I said trying not to let my cheeks flush

"A guy? One single _human_ guy? Jesus was he a troll or something?" Wizbit fussed

"No, just a guy, Six one, well built but not muscle large, strong . . . blue eyes . . .with hair that sort of . . ." I trailed off as I realised what I was saying, thankful that I couldn't see Wizbit's face from this angle

"Uh huh . . ." he trailed "Well he did a number on your shoulder, dislocated it?"

"Oh no, that was me"

"You?"

"Uh huh, it's a thing that I sort of . . . have you ever kissed someone you were fighting with?" I asked before I could censor myself

"Sure I used to fight with my girlfriend all the time, before making up its pretty . . . wait you mean? . . ." I looked down, focused hard on my feet "I think you'll find that no, I've never kissed someone who was _actually_ trying to kill me, though there was that girl I dated a couple of years ago she was . . . anyway you don't need to know about that and I don't need to know what just happened to you, so shall we move on?" I felt the heat die in his hands, flexed my shoulders, a little stiff but otherwise OK

"Thanks"

"No problem, Lathain just met up with some of the locals, he's talking with them now, might I suggest using a stealthier approach?"

"Not a bad idea" I said, "So What do we know, so far I've got military, private and some resistance in the mix but not entirely sure who to trust" I admitted.

"Well the resistance cell as you call it have been planning an uprising for a long time, buying members and building a following, not hard as most people here seemed to have been brought in on a temporary basis only to be held here indefinitely" he explained "the only problem is that they weren't able to do anything once the families were captured, that sort of squashed their drive as it were. But now that we've let the prisoners free they're letting loose hell" he said

"So who is leading it all?" I asked. Wizbit shrugged

"No idea but I think Lathain is talking with their main people now, I suggest we find him and find out what's going on" he disappeared from view, _good idea_.

I followed Wizbit's directions since I couldn't see him to a corridor where I could hear two people talking, one was a woman, the other was Lathain. At the end of the corridor was a door, a grunt stooped over a fallen troll in the corridor, examining its wounds

"My work" Wizbit whispered "time for me to get scarce for a while" he said "So far they haven't spotted me and I'd like to keep it that way"

"Fine by me" I told him, he'd be around, I de-cloaked as I passed the troll body, not interested in the grunt and his task I wanted to speak with Lathain so strode straight into the open room, the elf gave me a huge grin.

"Hey Ghost, you're here, just in time"

"Yeah, just in time to leave, wrap up your conversation we're going" The woman he was talking to shot me a look of evils, clearly not used to being ignored, she was slight, well built, a small series of scars on her bare arms told me she was a fighter, and if that didn't do it then the huge scar that went fully across her throat would make you think twice that and the full length Katana across her back certainly did. A sword in a military base meant she liked to be up close to the people she killed, _great_. I took a second to take in the array of weapons across her person, pistols, rifles, she was a walking armoury; I would have to choose my words very carefully

"And you are?" she asked raising a dark brow in question

"No-one" I said automatically turning my attention back to Lathain "Convoy's waiting"

"I know, he already told me, nice work by the way, but we have a bigger problem" he said "We can't leave yet"

"Seriously? What now?"

"I think I might be able to explain that" the woman stepped forward "K.C" she introduced herself, she offered up a hand "You're just in time to help us bust out of here"

"Ghost" I said taking the hand "So part of this resistance?"

"In a manner of speaking, I've been planning an uprising for some time, ever since the bastards locked me down here" she looked at me hard "I trust you're not here to get in my way?" fine by me, her eyes moved to the doorway behind me "Ah" she said talking to someone there "Find anything to let us know who killed the troll?" She asked the person behind me, "looks like we have a little extra help, this is Lathain and Ghost, Ghost this is one of my men who'll be joining us"

"We've met" the voice behind me said, I felt my stomach fall away and turned slowly to be greeted with those intense blue eyes, the scent of leather and cinnamon reached me "Hello Ghost" he said with a smile, hand held out "Whisperer, pleasure to see you again"

 _Shit_


	7. Chapter 7

Now Lathain is a lot of things but he isn't stupid, he caught the look on my face and noted the man stood before me. Whisperer, _a runner's name_ , Lathain caught the flush of red on my face.

"Soooo . . . you two know each other?" he asked

"Not real . . ."

"Intimately" Whisperer interrupted finally taking his eyes off me and putting out a hand to Lathain. The elf looked from Whisperer to me and to the hand before cautiously taking it and giving it a shake, there was an audible crack of bone but neither moved or flinched, I hid my face in my hair as they sized each other up. K.C stepped forward and addressed them both

"When you're ready gentlemen we need to move out now" with that she walked between the two, both dropped their hands so she could pass, Whisperer gave me a nod and followed leaving me to be stared down by Lathain

"Intimately?" he asked in a whisper

"Shut up" I told him and strode out after KC, Lathain took my arm and turned me to face him

"Is this going to be a problem for us?" he asked

"I'll only tell you this once, it's not a problem, I don't even know him and if you don't let go I'll burn you so hard there wont be ash left to scatter" reminded about my charge he dropped my arm as if it were made of larva, I took the opportunity and left, he cursed to himself and followed.

"So where are we going?" I asked the walking armoury that was KC

"We're getting some answers" she replied, her stride long and confident "I want to know what exactly has been going on here for the last five years"

"You've been here that long? Lathain asked in surprise

"Yup" KC replied, I could here chatter over her comm. link, looks like this mutiny of sorts was starting to turn into an all out war. "Your buddy here tells me he's here about some weapon that's being created here, some kind of device, I always suspected something much bigger, we've had a lot of mages come and go, and elf boy tells me his _friend_ can see mana barriers everywhere he walks"

I paused a moment, Lathain nearly bumping into me

"What's up?" he asked me

"Something Lindsey said" I told him, ignoring his questioning look about who Lindsey was "he said that no-one ever leaves the facility, but if mages are coming and going how did he not know about it?"

"Because" Whisperer said coming up behind us "they leave in a body bag"

"So what exactly is going on here?" Lathain asked "Wizbit keeps seeing mana barriers but they're not in rooms, they cut across corridors, randomly, some at weird angles, on all levels he's seen so far.

"So the mages were brought in to set u the barriers" KC guessed

"Must be" I said, "if there are as many as Wizbit is implying then no one mage could sustain them" KC nodded and set off again forcing us to follow. On her arm her comm. unit beeped and a yellow light started to flash, behind me Whisperer's wrist comm. did the same "trouble?" I asked

"Blood reminder" KC muttered "not that we'll need it soon" she didn't elaborate further, I was having a hard time keeping up with her, we took stairs to the upper levels, I was soon feeling out of breath, but given the company I didn't dare complain or ask to rest.

"So you never did tell me what you were doing here" Whisperer said adjusting his glasses and dropping back walk with me, now finally on the flat. His face was bruised purple, nose swollen; he'd changed his T-shirt and jacket since I'd seen him last. I suppose wherever he was going when I'd bumped into him didn't approve of red in their colouring.

"Well I don't like to tell everything about myself on the first date" I quipped, _where had that come from?_ I _never_ flirt with people, never ever!

"Alright then, how about we give a little tit for tat so to speak, you tell me a little and I'll tell you" he offered, his eyes observed me curiously "You first?" he guessed, I shrugged, fine, I could always lie if I needed to. "So what are you doing here?" he asked

 _Figures it would be that_ I thought to myself, "I'm with the elf" I said simply, he frowned

"You're not playing the game" he muttered, I gave an apologetic smile

"I wouldn't be good at my job if I told every good looking guy I met my secret plans would I?" It sounded innocent enough to my ears but it also sounded suspiciously like flirting in my head, flirting again? What was wrong with me? "Which begs the question, if you're really interested in playing the game then why are you so happy to give away your base secrets?"

"Oh easy" he said with a smile "It's not my base, they're not my secrets and if you guys are here to do what I think you're here to do then you might just be my ticket out of this hell hole"

"What do you think we're here to do?" I asked, so he was a prisoner down here too? KC stopped ahead of us and broke open the door in front of her, pistol up she fired three shots, I heard rather than saw the three falling bodies of men or women she'd just taken out, she turned her pistol to a figure I couldn't see.

"So then, are you going to tell me what the fuck is going on?" she asked

Inside the room was a huge computer screen, several jack points and now three bodies. Stone faced in his seat was a mean ass looking general character, buzz cut, clean shaven, immaculately pressed shirt and jacket and a face full of scars, he grimaced at KC.

"Ms KC" he sneered "And how is it I have come to know the pleasure of your company this morning?"

"Can the crap" she spat "Tell me about the weapon"

"Weapon?" he asked in mock innocence "Ahh Mr Whisperer, I see you join us too, do tell me who your friends are" Lathain was wasting no time heading to the console, shoving one of the dead men aside unceremoniously, a bullet in the mans brain, he began typing furiously.

"The weapon you've been working on right here on this base" KC snapped "Where is it?"

"It's safe" the General said calmly, he didn't seem the least bit perturbed at the gun in his face "I'd like to know how you found out about it, we've been very good at keeping this under wraps from most of the team" he yawned, feigning boredom. "You're due for your blood test" he said nodding his head to the blinking yellow light, he smiled then, a cold cruel smile. Something felt horribly wrong

"Errr KC" Lathain said his voice shaky "you need to see this" On the screen he pulled up files, images and text scrolling faster than I could compute, but some things I recognised, a DNA strand, an invoice for anticoagulant. Lathain held the screen on the invoice, the quantity was huge, several metric tonnes, but why? On a second screen a list of names scrolled, some lit in red, others highlighted in green.

"What does it all mean?" KC asked, her hand steady she positioned herself so she could see the screen without taking her eyes off the General

"They've been draining your blood" Lathain said "They've been taking everyone's blood, samples here and there for years, everyone that comes onto the base they've taken blood"

"The blood tests aren't to check for gas poisoning then" Whisperer said "A lot of caves like this have been known to harbour pockets of natural gases which can be toxic" he explained "I didn't think they would be normal though" he muttered to himself. Lathain gave him a look that told me there was more.

"Those people that never left? They were drained" he said, he scrolled and highlighted the names in red "They didn't have what they were looking for so they were expendable"

"You're using us" KC whispered

"Everyone uses everybody" the General said "fact of life"

"I got it!" all eyes but KC's turned to Lathain, his furious typing now ceased the screen before us shifted and glowed showing a map of the facility "Wow, this is fucked up" he breathed

"What is it?" KC asked

"It's a transmutation circle" Whisperer voiced my thoughts. As Wizbit had seen the facility had several mana barriers mapped around it, each on their own level, protecting some areas, leaving others open, looking level by level they seemed completely random but when viewed overlaid from above they showed a huge circle filled with intricate patterns.

"Oh not good" Whisperer said, his voice mixed awe and fear "Errr Lathain, can you look only at the lower decks for me?" Lathain scowled but did as he was asked, removing the top layers to show the lower layers "That's new" Whisperer said pointing to the lowest structure, a grating with a network of pipes leading to a room which was unmarked on the blue prints. "What is that?" he asked the General; the General of course said nothing.

"I think I know" Lathain whispered "I just pulled up the files, it's a collection chamber"

"For what?" I asked

"Blood"


	8. Chapter 8

Blood? Why? The question was instant and voiced by everyone, KC turned our attention back to the General "Just what's going on here?" she demanded, the General said nothing and she put a bullet in his knee, he cried out and hit the floor, but otherwise kept his mouth shut.

"Damn Bitch" Whisperer murmured, disapproval mixed with longing in his voice "We have to go"

"Go? Where?" KC asked

"Here" Whisperer said pointing to the map "Whatever is going on the answer is here, and I don't think we're going to like it"

"The device?" I asked Lathain He shook his head "Gone, someone left with it for Chicago an hour ago, it's gone to auction"

"Then there's no reason to stick around, we have to get to Chicago" I said turning to go, Whisperer grabbed my arm, yelping as my skin shocked him

" _Shit_ " he hissed, putting a singed finger to his lips "So you're not here about these blood experiments?" I shook my head.

"Nope, I had no idea" I told him "and now we're not here, Lathain we're leaving" I said nodding to the elf who continued to plough through data

"Wait" Whisperer stood in front of me hands up "Why did you come? How did you get in?" I felt it then, the pull of magic on my mind, he'd cast a spell on me, I shook my head and pulled my pistol on him, level with his face.

"Don't you dare" I snapped and KC spun to point her gun at the new threat "Don't you dare try use magic to get into my mind" I tried to calm the whirling emotions, tried to stay calm, _how dare he!_ I pulled the hammer on the pistol.

"Give me a reason" KC warned, she had drawn a second pistol, one at the now groaning General, the other aimed at me.

"Ghost, I'm sorry, just I need to know how you got in" Whisperer said hurriedly "We met on the lower levels, did you come in that way? Please Ghost I have to get down there, something very bad is going to happen" I didn't want to believe him but there was something in those blue eyes of his that made me feel like I could trust him, my mind shuddered, was that him or his magic?

"What's so important?" Lathain asked, at some point he'd drawn his own pistol, Whisperer pointed to the screen

"That transmutation circle is being fed, not by magic but by blood" he said "Look if they're collecting blood then whatever it's for isn't just for here, it's for everywhere" he sighed " _Look_ Ghost, _look_ at the schematics" I glanced briefly at the screen "Don't you see, they're _harvesting"_ beside me Lathain lowered his pistol to return to the screen whilst Whisperer continued "the collection tubes are for blood fed from the people on this base" he explained "there are hundreds of people here Ghost" he bit his lip, the frustration evident. "whatever it is it's a big circle, you're a mage you must know how bad this is" he stressed "we have to stop it Ghost"

"We don't even know what _it_ is" I said "And what's this _we_?"

"For the love of all . . ." he trailed off to halt his curse "Look, if you're not here for this then why are you?"

"We're here to free the families of the inventors and for the weapon" Lathain interrupted, I glanced at him and nearly had to do a double take, he was pale, the blood drained from his face "Mission accomplished, so we're leaving now" he said and moved round to the door, beckoning me to follow, I turned around Whisperer and backed off with Lathain down the corridor, when safe to do so, my counter spell resistance as high as I could tolerate we ran off.

"What do you think he meant?" I asked

"You don't want to know" Lathain carried on running, back the way we had come.

"But you do" I tested "You know"

"Yep, that's why we're getting out of here"

"Wait" I pulled his shirt, making him stop "what's going on?"

"Whips what's his name is right, they're gathering blood, they have pints and pints from each person on the base, they just dumped the lot down a series of tubes, they've been storing it for _years"_ he said running a hand through his hair, agitated "They've been gathering other types of critters too, they even have Wendigo DNA Ghost" he started walking again, I almost had to run to keep up, "They're purists" he spat "God damn idiots want to eradicate the magical genome, mages, elves, dwarves everything magical so it's just the humans again and no one else" I stopped dead

"But that'll kill . . ."

"Millions Ghost"

"So why are we leaving, why aren't we stopping them?" I was shocked

"Because they're too strong, they already have what they need, this small device for auction, it's nothing, titbits of power when these people have what they really want, they have the real power Ghost"

"But _you're_ an _elf_ Lathain!" Idiot didn't realise that if what he said was true and we didn't stop them then he could die?

Lathain hit something hard and invisible, Wizbit's form shimmered in front of him becoming solid "You're an ass Lathain" Wizbit said "We're stopping this, I just got a load of additional info and they're nearly ready to launch this thing"

"Launch?" I asked

"Remember the rumbling and shaking earlier?" he said, I nodded "Well it's not an earthquake, it's a railroad, one designed to carry the blood that's been collected over the last five years and it's heading out, I found another blueprint for a second circle, but it's not here, it's in Chicago"

"Chicago?" Lathain was curious now

"Chicago" Wizbit confirmed "the train is to link the two circles, I don't know how but I can make a pretty good guess"

"A blood trail" Whisperer supplied coming up the corridor, KC close behind, Wizbit looked from Whisperer's beaten form to myself, I tried to hide the blush, failing completely, Wizbit's mouth formed an 'oh' and turned back to Whisperer.

"That's my theory, whilst you guys have been kept here they've been collecting the blood spilt and storing it, they've dragged in other meta human types for experimentation, adding their genes to the mix too"

"It's the Nazi's all over again" Whisperer murmured

"Nazi's?" KC queried

"German group who wanted to create the perfect pure race, the Arian race, they figured the way to do that was to destroy everyone without those pure characteristics"

"Genocide"her voice was flat

"Yup" the hell of it all hit me, if they were taking meta human blood and transfixing it to a transmutation circle of this size and power then that meant the effects would be far reaching.

"Wait, if they've collected blood from here then they'll have human too right? Wont that be killing absolutely everyone" I asked, Wizbit shrugged

"Maybe, we're only making assumptions here" Whisperer said "I glanced at Lathain and KC, KC was focused on Wizbit. I remembered her earlier comment about someone else being in the facility, she didn't know it at the time but she had come across Wizbit

"Look, this is way over our heads, we've no idea what's going on in this place, our primary mission objective is done and our second is no longer on site so I say we split" Lathain was being uncharacteristically edgy, he never backed down from a fight, so what was wrong with this one? If this Blood circle wasn't stopped then metahumans could be wiped out from here to Chicago, maybe further, and who knows if the circle was constructed correctly? It could destroy everyone. This was exactly the kind of thing Lathain got involved in. Back in Tibet he had told me that he didn't have any family, that he ran in the Shadows to protect the little people, why was he turning his back on them now?

"Well look, as far as I'm concerned my objective was to stop you getting the device which is already on it's way outta here so mine is pretty much complete too, however I'm sticking around" I told the elf "Personally I'd like to know what doom these creeps have been putting in store for us" I could feel the charge building in my arms, I needed to vent. "I don't know what's gotten into you on this case but if you want to leave then go ahead, I'll figure this by myself" I moved to go, Whisperer stood in my way a moment "I'd move unless you want another couple of volts"

He held up his hands and stepped aside "I was just going to say I'd show how to get to where you're going" I turned to face him, "I have a map now" he looked at me Wizbit and Lathain having a murmured conversation with KC "I'd like to get outta here too you know" I rolled my eyes, the need to vent growing

"Fine" I said stepping round him, careful not to touch his skin "Just don't get in my way" I marched off down the corridor.


	9. Chapter 9

A moment later KC, Whisperer, Lathain and I presume a once again invisible Wizbit were close behind. I asked about the General, KC simply shrugged and told me he'd taken a very short notice break to catch up on sleep, meaning she'd knocked him out.

"I need to vent off" I told Lathain, he raised his eyebrow at me, I sighed "The electricity" the reaction was instant, he was five paces behind in a moment.

"You're not venting on me" he growled

"Vent?" KC asked

"I'm electrically charged, if I don't vent then it builds beyond what I can control then boom, bye, bye Ghost" I explained "I meant Lathain, is there a cable network I can fry, or somewhere safe to do it? I don't want to melt the walls, particularly since we're underground" Lathain shook his head.

I took a left turn and hit the stairs two at a time, at the bottom taking the right, followed by the next left, turning the next right I nearly bumped into two young guys smoking and leaning lazily against the wall chatting.

"Oh hey, sorry Ma'am" One said, Whisperer caught up

"How do you know where you're going?" he asked then turned to face the two in front of me "Ah actually you two, I think I might need your help, you still got that plastic?" the two lads eyes brightened, taking a curious glance at Lathain and KC following behind

"Yeah" the dark haired of the two said

"Enough for a few remodeling projects" the blonde smirked, Whisperer introduced the dark and blonde boys in turn

"Ghost this is Nate and Dean, they're going to give us a hand with a few things, they're the best demolitions team we have" if he said so, they looked barely out of their teens, but then I wasn't that much older looking than the two "Guys, grab your gear and meet us on sub level nine"

"Sub level nine?" Dean said

"Hey man we ain't got the clearance for that area" Nate finished

"Well now you do" KC tore off her insignia and slapped it in their hands "That's an order, and be quick about it" the two snapped to attention then raced off, KC shouldered her way in front, I narrowly avoided touching her, even so I could feel the bend and pull of the electricity trying to snake it's way away from me.

KC took the lead down more steps, metal walls gave way to wooden panels and bare rock, I tested the rock gingerly, but not enough conductivity in the mineral to earth my charge. We hit the lowest level, the floor now a type of grating, K.C prepped her weapon, one of them a mean looking assault rifle, Whisperer cocked his pistols.

"Stay close, the war zone starts here" he murmured

"Lathain, what about Convoy?" I asked

"He's taking the refugees out of here, when they're safe he'll come back for extraction, ETA one hour" he said. He too prepped a pistol, I daren't touch mine for fear of the electricity setting the bullets off, so kept it holstered, my left side began to heat and in the dim light the scars visible above my neckline started to glow.

"Err Ghost?" KC asked, eyeing the glowing lightning scars

"It's normal" I said "But I need to find a venting area quickly" I told her, she nodded turning the next corner, the sound of a gun shot and KC's form flew backwards hitting the wall, a barrage of shots followed, Lathain and Whisperer moving forward to give KC the cover fire she needed to crawl back to the safety of cover. Guess I'd be able to vent a different way then.

I stepped round the corner and clicked my fingers, a snake of lightning lashed out, taking out the temporary wood walls scorching a hot burn across it in a bright finger pattern and hitting the three guys at the end of the short corridor in the chest. Hopefully by deflecting it off the walls they wouldn't be killed by it, but they were now certainly out for the count, still not enough, the charge was still high, I moved quickly down the corridor, Lathain and Whisperer close behind, Lathain supporting KC whilst she got her breath back, the bullet had dented her armour but not gone through.

"I'm getting a lot of chatter up ahead" Whisperer said "Looks like an all out fight is going on"

"We don't need to get involved, we just need to get through" I said, spinning on my heels to blast a troop of guys trying to sneak in behind us. "Where are the stairs to the lowest level?" I asked

"No idea" came the answer, even KC shook her head

"I know to sub nine, that's it" she said

"Then we should split to look for them, in ten minutes time we meet up back here, push comes to shove I'll take the vents again" I said, I stepped over the prone form of one of the men I had fried, he was alive, but unconscious. I had no idea which side he was on, if there was even a right side to chose from.

"But then you'll be on your own" Whisperer said, he looked concerned, I shot him my _don't give a shit_ look "Fine, but we split into groups" he compromised

"I'm with the elf" KC piped up, I gave her a smart look, she shrugged, not caring, "I know the facility, so does Whisperer, you guys don't"

"Fine" she had a point "I'll take the left" I moved off with Whisperer close behind, I swear I heard him mumbling something about trying to keep up, I didn't need his guidance, I had a perfect map in my head of the facility from the screen upstairs, though to get to the lowest levels the info was sketchy, clearly they didn't hand out this information to just anyone, I took corners confidently, the sound of gunfire and the smell of sulphur was growing as we moved "Great" I muttered moving to the next location where stairs would normally be found, did these guys follow any kind of architectural clichés?

The sound of gunfire now was too loud, sure enough the next corner opened up to a large area, guns and machinery turning, we were in the central reservation of the building, going up three floors above us, shots came from all around and we scattered to find cover, finding myself alone in the middle of a battlefield. Just great.

I blasted what I could, trying to take out the bigger guns on all sides, parts of the floor had been pulled up to give a measure of cover and I made use of these. I shocked some troops unconscious and raced across the arena, I collided with Lathain in the middle

"We're getting out" he said "Approach it from the outside, Wizbit said he found a way externally, he's making his way there now"

"Good idea" we dived to the side from more gunfire "Where's your chaperone?" I asked, Lathain nodded to a large machine gun. KC behind the screen firing away, she too was taking out the larger guns

"Yours?" he asked; I shrugged, no idea, Lathain's focus went beyond me for a moment "Errr, Ghost" I turned to look where he now pointed, there was a child hurrying between a corridor opening, a moment later a second child and a woman

"More refugees" I breathed _damn_. "O.K you get to the train, I'll get the refugees out of here" I said, Lathain nodded, his eyes now the hard gleam of battle, the Lathain I knew from the forest, from Tibet, he was back. I gave him thumbs up and darted towards the opening where I had seen the children. I dodged a few shots, pain erupting from my leg; I had no choice but to make for cover to assess the damage.

My back slammed hard against a barrier of torn flooring and upturned drums, hissing in pain at the blood pouring from my leg, I could hear Lathain yelling orders over the racket to KC and Wizbit; and KC's snappy reply. _Damn, that had hurt_ , I was not having the best day, I pulled my jeans leg up to survey the damage, just a flesh wound but it was pouring, at first the blood had made me think I'd clipped an artery, not good though I'd have to stop it.

I pulled hard on my sleeve top, it tore at the seam, I tied it hastily around the gash, gritting my teeth, letting a hiss escape again, I wiped my bloody hands on my jeans as I pulled the legs down again. Metal thudded beside me I flinched glancing across to where Whisperer had landed next to me, sliding a new clip into his pistol, whilst firing his second over his shoulder without looking, a scream of a dying man was his reward.

First pistol reloaded he took a breath then spun rising from cover to unload both clips into the fray, the smell of gunpowder was heavy on the air. When empty he sat back down again and reloaded single handed for each. As if seeing me for the first time he flinched back, gun up to my face, before a second's pause and he lowered it again eyes cast over my pale face and down to the mess of my leg

"You're hurt"

"No shit Sherlock" I said, he raised a brow

"Not that bad then" he said turning to unload his guns again, this time on sitting down he removed his coat to get at the clips attached to a harness beneath, I fired a bolt of lightning at a guy who came too close, great timing, I was needing to discharge "Nice shooting" he said pulling a clip and jamming it into his gun

"I would say the say the same to you" I said loosing another bolt at the glint of a sniper rifle

"Would?" he teased but I didn't get chance to answer, ahead I saw the creep of a guy that KC had knocked out, he was heading in the same direction the woman and children had run. Without thinking I stood and took off after him, muttering an invisibility spell as I went, not strong but it would do.

The General raced after the escaping family, and I raced after him, I caught up with him, knocking his legs out from beneath him and pinning him, only temporary though, he got loose and thrashed out hitting me hard, I dropped my spell on reaction and he grabbed me, trying to throttle the breath from me.

"Stupid Bitch" he hissed I scratched at his arms, tried to reach his eyes but he held me too strong "You can't stop it, you and your kind will be wiped out, you stupid fuckin . . ." an eruption of blood from his face splattered over me and he crumpled, his weight pinning me and taking me down too, I blinked the blood from my eyes to look into his contorted face, blood pouring from a hole in his forehead. Strong warm hands pulled me from beneath the General's body; I turned to thank Lathain, finding Whisperer in place instead

"You OK?" he asked, checking me over

"I'll be fine" I murmured trying to move away, he was tall and close and I was uncomfortable, even though I knew he was trying to help. In my discomfort the scars on my arms lit up bright as the charge skyrocketed.

"Sir!" I heard Nate calling and saw the two lads run over carrying a large pack, Whisperer backed off to greet them giving me the air I needed, already the charge was building to a point of pain, and Dean took one look at me and whistled. I couldn't care to think how I looked to him, covered in blood, limping and bruised, and now lit up like a Christmas tree. "Sir we got what you asked for, some crazed elf said he was with you and took half of what we had, KC was with him, is there anything else?"

"Yeah we're looking to remove some civilians from the area" Whisperer said, he caught my look "Lathain just comm'd me to tell me the exit and that I was to help you herd them out" he explained "Dean, Nate I need you to prep some of that plastic for me on your way out, I'll gather the kids then I want you to take them to this location" he tapped on his comm. and I heard the beep of transfer.

"What about you Ma'am?" Nate asked, I shook my head

"If you guys are taking people out then I'll stay and help Lathain out" Whisperer gave me a look that said he thought I should be getting out, but held his tongue, it was not his place to say.

We followed the corridors, Nate and Dean chattering away behind us, a movement to my left gave away the family, two in fact, four children and two women, they looked scared, I put up my hands, but let Whisperer do the talking, my current condition I would more likely scare the kids than anything. Nate and Dean each took a child in their arms, the mothers taking one each also, they would travel faster that way, Whisperer gave them a new route to take, one he hoped would avoid the fighting, but still be effective to use up the explosives the guys would set as they went.

"Once you're outside you're on your own" he warned as we rounded a corridor far enough from the fighting to be safe "The others have long gone in the truck and are safe now, stick to the wall, use the caves when you can for cover and for gods sake tell me when you get out" The boys nodded and set off at speed, the mothers in toe. Whisperer turned to me, taking a second to take in the blood and bruising "We need to get you cleaned up" he said shoving his glasses up his swollen nose. I put a hand to his face and muttered a spell, the wound healing, the bone resetting. He clasped his hand over mine so I couldn't let go for a moment, my breath hitched in my throat, and I felt that undeniable pull once again, I resisted the urge to close the distance further, my scars now bright enough to light the corridor.

"Your turn" he whispered pulling my hand away, I shook my head.

"I can't heal myself very well" I explained "Something to do with the electrical charge I carry, healing has to be done by someone more powerful than me to get past it, that or I need a quiet meditative state" I stepped back, breaking contact "We need to go, has Lathain found a way down?"

"Nope, he's going through the floor, suggests we do the same" _great, more vents_

"Best place?" I asked

"Anywhere near the wall" he said, I took off at a run, ignoring the pain in my leg that the charge had built, damn it, this was stupid; did it mean that high exertion exasperated the problem? This was stupid and could be dangerous around others

"Here" I said, pulling up a floor grate to expose a chute of some kind, just wide enough for a man of Whisperer's size to squeeze through. The sides were tinged brown and my stomach twisted as I realised what I was looking at, it was a collection tube for blood. "Careful" I said, I slid in head first so i could see where I was going, it seemed roomy enough, the smell of copper was strong and made my stomach twist.

The drop was only three foot, opening into a large room, below me a large bracket sat in place; it had obviously held a vat of some kind before, the vat now gone. The drop to the floor was about ten foot, I twisted and slid out the vent, holding the sides carefully so I could drop feet first. The landing was a little hard and I hit my ass, Whisperer landing lightly beside me, he gave me a hand up, hissing as the electricity bit at his skin. I could tell he was dying to ask about the glow which showed now even through the heavy denim of my jeans, I desperately needed to vent, I was a target glowing like this.

I looked around, noting the huge brackets, a few empty large drums and a strong chemical smell, the smell of blood was strong too, the floor had a light coating in places, spillage from the drums perhaps, I shuddered; to fill one drum would take a lot of blood, but then they'd been working on this for five years if the rumours were to be believed. I noted a torn cable near where a vat had once sat, it seemed to lead down further into the ground, it might just do to vent a little, I steadied my mind enough to send some energy down the wiring, the glow faltered and died as the lights flickered, some of the bulbs bursting as the grid took up my charge.

"Ghost, Whisperer!" I heard KC calling, she stood by one of the walls waving us over, we hurried across. "We found the train" She pushed open a door in the wall to show a huge cut out of the cavern, natural light streamed in from the outside, cracks from above filtering the light down, beside me Whisperer blinked, and for a moment held out an arm letting the rays touch his skin, like he was savouring the sunlight, _how long had he been down here?_

"Oh no" KC whispered, I turned to look where she was staring, the cavern was filled with a huge engine, a super carrier, capable of hauling hundreds of tonnes of carriages. On this train strung out were over a dozen drums, turned on their sides, hooked up with various tubes and wires, there were some carriages between, some were flat bed, empty, others held port-a-cabin style structures, however they all had one thing in common . . .

They were moving!


	10. Chapter 10

"Go, we've got to get on board!" I shouted racing to the nearest trailer, running alongside looking for the opportunity to jump on, Whisperer raced behind and grabbed on, hauling himself up the side of one of the drums, KC scrambled on the flat bed in front, as the train picked up pace I ran faster, my leg protesting all the way. Whisperer threw out a hand to haul me up as his carriage passed.

"Now what?!" KC yelled from her flat bed

"Get to the front, stop the train!" I shouted, trying to keep my balance, hand holds didn't exactly come as standard on these things.

"You need a hand?" Whisperer shouted, I shook my head

"I'll be fine, just get up front, and help KC"

Suddenly the light went out; the train passing through a large tunnel, rock passed mere inches from my body, the wind now catching my hair whipping into my face and my eyes.

"Lathain is on board, he's by the front, they have some resistance" Whisperer shouted, I nodded and waved him off, at least Lathain was aboard, and if Lathain was on then maybe Wizbit would have found a way round too. KC set off ahead, Whisperer quick to catch her up, my leg made mine slow progress, but eventually I hit the flat bed, collapsing in a heap. KC and Whisperer had gone over the top of the drums where hand rails and locking chains gave support. There was only dim light to see by and all I could hear was the roar of the train echoing in the tunnel and the rush of air, damn I was tired. I rolled onto my back to stand when I saw a huge axe swinging towards my head.

I rolled and the axe hit the flat bed, digging deep and getting stuck, the owner a huge troll with tusks as thick as my arm tugged then bellowed in frustration, I sprung to my feet, unsteady in the wind from the train, he must have come from behind after seeing us jump aboard, Whisperer had said Lathain had met resistance, looks like this wasn't to be the walk in the park we had hoped for.

The troll came at me, no doubt hoping to knock me from the train, but even with a damaged leg I was quick on my feet and easily dodged his huge swings, stay in the centre of the bed; then he wouldn't be able to pin or throw me that was the plan. He swung again and I moved to dodge, his other arm coming up to grab me round the throat, a feint! For the second time that day I was being strangled, this time though I had my charge, nice and hot, I let it loose.

The electricity shot over the troll's body, the burn so hot I felt my throat where he held me begin to blister slightly, he dropped me and I fell hard, coughing and drawing in breath, at first I thought he was simply dazed, he stood there motionless. The train hit a small bump, enough to rattle the floor and he fell over, solid and as one unit, not a collapse, more a fall as if he were made of stone, his eyes were open, but as I checked his throat I could feel no pulse _. Ouch_ , this is the kind of damage I feared most from this kind of magic, to simply kill someone in a single charge.

I noticed a small pack on his belt, a med kit, my own kit was still on Convoy's truck, I unbuckled his belt, noting the odd shine it carried and the strange weight, and slid the med kit free, inside were a few dressings and a couple of patches, I slapped a stim patch on, feeling a little more energised. I took a few precious seconds to properly dress my leg and add a suppressor to it, should stop it from bleeding further. I looked to the troll's belt again, curious, pulling it free, it shone and flexed, end on the top ridge there was a . . .

I flicked the small catch and the buckle slid further out, or in reality the blade it was concealing did. A memory blade, it withdrew, flexible in the air for a moment before hardening to a short sword. The sheen of the belt had been my clue; I'd heard of memory blades before but never seen one. I replaced the blade, on contact with the belt it became pliant once again and allowed me to slide it together. Too valuable to leave behind I looped it through my own belt loops, attaching the med kit also. Then I followed Whisperer and KC over the top.

Over each carriage I half jumped, half stumbled, _damn my leg_ , I really needed Wizbit, I noticed a few hastily stickered plastic blocks by the couplers; this must be Whisperer's plan to blow the carriages and stop the train, smart man.

A sound behind me caught my attention, a couple of trolls were scrambling over the top of the carriages, one carried a large axe, the other a club, though I couldn't see in great detail from where I was I was pretty sure there'd be a nail in it. I drew my little pistol and unloaded the barrel at the approaching pair, one hung back, the other ducked between the carriages out of range. I couldn't pick them off at this distance and I didn't think I'd survive a one on one encounter, let alone a one in two, my best bet was to catch up to the team.

I was getting close to the front by the time I caught up with everyone, I looked over the top of the last drum, picking my way carefully, from my view point I could see mana blasts seemingly from no-where which told me Wizbit was around, Lathain was getting his arse handed to him by an Orc who's sheer size was scary, even if the twin bladed sword he held wasn't. Whisperer and KC were tag teaming a group of smaller Orcs, taking them out one by one.

Suddenly from the dim and gloom, there was light, light and heat, the echo of the cave disappeared and the train was out in full sunlight, in the open heading towards Chicago. _Damn_.

I heard popping sounds behind me, the drum beneath me shook violently, I lost my grip and slid over the edge. I half screamed and thrust out a hand, just catching a railing before I could fall to my death, the shoulder still tender from my fight with Whisperer burned, and my fingers began to slip. I gritted my teeth and hauled myself up so I could grasp the railing with both hands, just in time as above me a small hatch opened and red liquid poured over me in a heavy stream. Blood.

I coughed and turned my head from the spray, the railing now slick and slippery, I tried to slide across it, managing to get free of the spray. I blinked trying to clear the blood from my eyes, red haze vision showed me the carriages behind were all dumping the blood along the tracks in a steady torrent. This was what the blood was for, this was how they would connect the two circles!

We had to stop the train before it reached Chicago.

I swung my legs up, coated in blood they were slippery and it took several tries to get the anchorage I needed to haul myself above the flow of the other openings and towards the group. I could barely breath now, blood covered every inch of me, I ached all over. I slid to the edge of the drum and readied myself to drop to the bed beneath.

". . . not here yet" I heard KC shouting over the noise, below me an Orc went overboard.

"Stop the train!" Wizbit's voice yelled

" _Not yet!_ " Lathain and Whisperer's objection rose in unison, a second Orc went overboard and Lathain's Orc soon went with it.

"One or many Lathain?" Wizbit shouted

"Shut up, give it a minute and by the way, we have company" KC shouted, indeed we did, three hind choppers could be seen coming towards us from the base, I doubted very much that they were to give us a hand. I lower myself down and dropped onto the flat bed. The sound of a shot and pain spread across my arm, KC's barrel pointed towards me.

"SHIT!" she shouted, dodging another Orc, Whisperer knocked him overboard as KC ran over to me, "Damn woman I'm sorry, I thought you were a . . . well a . . . one of them" she finished. I hissed in pain, my blood mixing with the now drying blood from the spray. I couldn't blame her; I bet I barely even looked human right about now.

"NOW!" Wizbit shouted, KC pulled me from the edge of the bed, the last of the Orc's was sent flying as we passed, each running, or in my case being dragged, to the next carriage up, a basic port-a-cabin on the bed, we moved inside and braced what was left of the door, I assumed that was KC's or Lathain's work. Whisperer pulled a small remote from his pocket

"Hold on to something" he said and pushed the button.

The whole carriage rocked and tilted, threatening to derail and go overboard, papers, folders and glassware broke and fell around us, and through a gap in the door I saw the other carriages come away from the main, some tipping over, breaking the drums and spilling blood everywhere, the explosion setting fire to a few of the carriages, the blood being burnt up, the flat bed we had been on was being dragged, having partially de-railed.

"We better move upwards" Lathain said, "stop the train properly, and figure out a way to get rid of those hinds" I wasn't going to argue with that.

We moved up the carriages, port-a-cabin to port-a-cabin until we hit another flat bed, Lathain turned to me and KC. "Ladies, go on ahead and stop the train, we'll sort those guys out" he pulled a grapple from his pack . . . he was going to pull one of his hair brain stunts again. I'd rather not have the heart attack of watching. Me and KC raced ahead as quick as we could, the hinds now flying over, there was the sound of gunfire, both from the air and the ground.

"You gonna be OK?" KC asked, I nodded, tearing the arm from the other side of my shirt and tying around my new bullet hole; we continued until we hit what appeared to be the final carriage, this was a permanent structure, rather than a set up in a cabin attached to the train, we bolted through the door and stopped dead in our tracks.

The room was a laboratory, lining the walls and on tables, strapped down in a maze of tubes and pumps were the oddest collection of Meta humans we had ever seen.


	11. Chapter 11

The train cabin was full of meta humans. Wendigo, troll, Orc, Dwarf, Human, Ghoul, there was a pygmy, and in a water tank even a merman, a young Giant took up the whole back wall.

"What the fuck?" KC breathed, there were others on the bunks that lined the walls, under thin white sheets, they were all asleep, drugged.

At that moment the train bucked hard, KC raced to the door to look back over the train, the back carriages tore away, crashing and rolling in the dirt, leaving just half the cabin behind us, our carriage and the engine itself.

KC's face twisted in pain for a moment before she relaxed, above us a hind swung and crashed into the ground, adding to the wreckage of the train. "They're OK" she said. She must have received a comm. message, "They're _all_ OK" she stressed "They've got one of the choppers, come on lets stop this thing, then we can get the fuck out of here" We moved through the carriage, careful to avoid the giant, I was pretty sure he was in a drugged sleep, but I didn't want to take the chance.

Outside the gunfire continued, sounding distant now, a chase perhaps? KC moved to the front, gun up, I felt for my knives thinking better of it, my hands were slippery and slick from blood, I didn't want to chance loosing my grip, my electricity would be dangerous too, whilst I had a general immunity to it I wasn't sure how it would play if I was covered in something conductive. A single shot took out the remaining guard at the controls and KC chattered with Lathain on stopping the train, pushing buttons and hauling levers, a high pitched whistle filled the air as the brakes engaged, the floor lurching slightly as it tried to slow, I glanced out of the window of the booth, there were balls of sand flying around in the distance, Lathain was a long way off.

"We'll just have to sit it out until they come pick us up" I said "Whilst they sort that I'm going to see if I can clean up somewhere"

"Yeah well you need it" KC muttered I tried to ignore her, she was looking at a map on the wall of the booth "Where about on this do you think we are?" She asked

"No clue" I said, spitting blood from the corner of my mouth, mine or from the tank I had no idea at this point "No comm. for GPS and I've not been able to keep track of how fast we were going to work it out" I told her "Try cross referencing the grid references with your GPS"

"See that's the thing, I already did and it says we should be practically on top of a base near this reservoir, but I can't see one, a base OR a reservoir" indeed she was right, out the window there was just an expanse of desert. "Maybe my comm. is broken?"

"Maybe" I murmured, "or maybe . . ." there was something odd about the scene in front of me, it seemed unchanging as we slowly rolled towards it, the train chugging to a halt, almost like a picture on a roller banner that spun round to give the illusion of more space ahead. "Try and go forward a little more" KC gave me a look that told me she wasn't pleased to be told what to do, but did it anyway, the train jolted for a moment before easing forward slowly. I watched the landscape, not in the front, but to the side at an angle, sure enough something seemed very different, in front we saw nothing but sand and rails, but as we continued at the side rocky boulders appeared, rocks which hadn't been shown at the front.

"It's some kind of camouflage" KC said, she was quick for a non magic user "You think it's here to hide the base?"

"Most likely, which means we'll probably meet resistance, if anything it's probably there to dissuade people who are lost into thinking they've found water, the map shows another part of the reservoir close by east wards, if someone were to see nothing but sand they would probably swing that way, thus leaving the base alone" I blinked my eyes a few times trying to shift my vision to the astral plane.

The world of colour moved to one of electric blue lines and purple haze, like a negative for a photograph in purple ink, ahead of me there was the orange haze of a mana barrier, a deep one too, we were right in the middle of it, but the edge could be seen. Odd however that the barrier seemed to have cracks and tears in it, whoever had built it was not maintaining it properly.

I blinked again to see KC shuddering. "What?" I asked

"I _hate_ when you guys do that" she said "Gives me the creeps, with your eyes clouding up and everything" she shuddered again "So what did you see?"

"We're in the middle of the barrier" I confirmed "Looks a bit shaky to me, it's not very strong anymore"

"Think they're no longer around?" she suggested, I looked back to the carriage behind holding all the meta humans, we could only hope.

The train broke through and the change was instant, the reservoir was a dam that dropped sharply away to the left, but came near the edge to the right, there was greenery on one side too, though the desert heat and strong winds would mean they were only the hardiest of plants and probably not edible. What must have once been a base was now just a few shack buildings, the shell of an old larger structure could be seen as KC pulled the brakes again to stop us.

We waited in the train for a moment, but there was nothing, no movement, no passing shadows, not even the customary tumble weed I had always envisioned in a place like this.

"Either no—one is home or we spooked them into hiding" KC said, "We'd better make this quick, you clean up in the water, I'll take a look around" Whilst I didn't like the idea of leaving KC to scope out the place on her own I really had no choice but to follow her suggestion, the blood coating was thick and it was drying, cracking against my skin in the dry heat. KC came with me to the water's edge, satisfied that there was no one around she left me to strip and bathe, I'd retrieved a bottle of wash from the lab area, thankful for the suds despite the strong chemical smell. I washed in my underwear, once clean I scrubbed my clothes as best I could, all the while keeping an eye out just in case.

The whole area really felt like a ghost town, it was at times like this that I wished I'd learnt the life spell Master Wodan had suggested, it would have told me just how many critters there were around here. The water in the shallows was warm to the skin, gradually getting cooler as I waded deeper to wash the blood from my hair. Climbing out KC was sat at the edge beside my clothes, her rifle on the ground. That meant she thought we were safe enough, I could relax a little.

"Not a soul but for a few lizards" she said "Can't even see tracks of larger animals, nothing has been this way in a really long time" she said, she raised a brow as I waded up towards the edge taking in the lightning scars that covered my whole left side. "Damn girl that's a sexy look" she said with a grin "How do you keep the boys off you?" I didn't comment and she rolled her eyes. I rung the water from my hair and pulled on my damp clothes, feeling a million miles better.

"So what have we got?" I asked. KC grinned and threw something to me, I caught it, a candy bar.

"We got a whole host of rations, and . . . " she held up a dangling set of keys "We got a broken down bus with enough gas to get us to Gary, which is the next stop"

"A bus?" I asked, she nodded "Big enough to take a few others?" KC's face fell

"Oh _hell_ no"


	12. Chapter 12

"You are _not_ waking those things up" KC said, I raised my brow at her.

"Things?" I said "Those _things_ have been put through hell just as much as you have, beside we might need their help" I said "There are a few fighter types in amongst that lot, and they might be able to tell us what was going on in that place" KC looked for a moment like she would argue, but sighed and nodded.

"Fine, but if they turn on you I'll only say I told you so" she grumbled.

Back in the train we surveyed the menagerie of meta humans before us, my first port of call would be the pygmy, a known face and one I knew I could communicate with, I looked carefully at the collection of tubing that pierced his little body and studied the diagram of which drugs did what, KC stood back, pistol up; for insurance, she had said. I pulled a few tubes and switched off some drips, carefully removing the tubing from the tiny form. The skin pitch black and leather like, he had a small tuft of red hair and bright yellow eyes that stared off into space, their eyes were so huge they had no eye lids, instead keeping their glass like orbs clean by use of a polishing cloth; yellow eyes meant a magic user. I cleaned his eyes, or her eyes, the thing about pygmy's was you never could tell which one they were and gently undid the straps. We waited for a moment.

"Of all the ones to pick why did you choose that one?" KC asked and shuddered "That is the freakiest thing I've ever seen"

"They're good creatures" I told her "I spent some time in their company once, learnt a few things" the form on the table twitched, the breathing changed and then slowly it sat up, the unblinking eyes were unnerving, unable to tell if it had "opened it's eyes" so to speak, slowly it turned it's head and regarded me and KC.

"Tuk Tuk Kalhan boyto chuku" it chattered _You who follows the chosen one_

I couldn't help but smile, so it knew about me, that was reassuring, I spoke back in pygmy

 _Yes, the chosen one is nearby, we're just trying to work out what is going on here_ I spread out my arms to encompass the train and the meta human collection. The pygmy looked to KC whose face was now one of a thoroughly confused woman. _She is with me, she helped me to find you_ I explained, the pygmy nodded.

 _Chosen one's helper helps me, so I will help you_ it said and jumped lightly from the table, it looked again to KC, she had her pistol pointed at him, I put out a hand

"It's alright KC, honestly, he's one of us" I explained

"Yeah sure" she said nodding and lowering her pistol "If you say so" she looked from the pygmy to me "Can they understand me?" she asked, the pygmy nodded to show that he could.

"You could learn pygmy from him, it won't take a moment" I told her, she shook her head

"Nope I'm good thanks, just fine" she mumbled, I think she was a little freaked.

"OK, let's get on with Meta Human number two shall we?" I said, I chose a fairly normal looking guy, he seemed human, his chart had him labelled as "Mannery". I took a quick look at his blood chart, there was something highlighted, lines of genetic coding, but I didn't know enough to tell what it meant, at the bottom of the page it noted "rare specimen" so he wasn't entirely human then, but I had no idea exactly what he was. Location of extraction was Boston, so he should hopefully speak English. As with the pygmy I went slow, carefully removing tubes. Behind me KC was trying to talk to the pygmy, holding out a candy bar at arms length, repeating her name over and over, I grinned.

"They don't have names K.C, and they don't eat" she looked down at the pygmy and dropped her shoulders, sitting on the floor in defeat, the pygmy edged closer slowly until he was beside her, tentatively plucking at strands of her hair, she looked like she was about o bolt, I laughed "He's fine, he just wants to play with your hair" I said

"Great, fine, whatever" she had given up, the weirdness of the creature that was the pygmy simply was too much and she sat in a dejected heap whilst the pygmy ran his tiny fingers through her hair, creating small braids, he chattered something to her. "What was that?" She asked me

"He said you're a mighty woman, a warrior, better than the Jishandi Priestess" I told her, slightly annoyed, he was basically inferring that KC was a better fighter than me, but then she probably was.

"So who are the Jishandi?" KC was curious now, she seemed more settled, and the plucking of hair seemed to have a calming effect

"They're a race of Amazonian warriors" I told her "I'm kind of the double to their priestess; he was paying you a compliment"

"Naturally" she said

On the table Mannery stirred, a soft groan escaping him, his eyes flashed open and for a split second I saw something hidden there, but what I could not say, we eased him up, sadly however he couldn't tell us much, simply that he'd gotten home from work in Boston to find armed men at his house, they'd drugged him and the next he knew he was waking up here, he'd been gone for five months though so he had been drugged pretty heavily. He spent the remainder of the time sat in the corner feeling very queasy. We started with the Meta humans we were familiar with, Orc, troll, dwarf before moving onto the more questionable meta types. They all had a pretty similar story, other than the Gnome and Orc who seemed to want to attack each other on first laying eyes on the other, turned out the Orc, Hacker had brought the Gnome, Geraldine in as a bounty only for himself to be subject to the same experiments, it did mean that Hacker and Geraldine didn't have the best cause to get along. But with KC's sharp tongue they fell into order with everyone else.

"What do we have left?" KC asked, we had separated an Orc, troll, dwarf, pygmy, gnome, yeti, human and elf from their drug prison, but we still had a few to go.

"I've got a ghoul, a giant, a merman, a big ass cat, a wendigo and I'm missing a subject called Adam" I told her "What do you think we should pull next?" I felt a tug at my sleeve, the dwarf pointed to a seemingly empty table, no, not empty, straps were laid over something solid, just . . . I moved my perception to astral, there was a man lying there, a . . . naked man to be exact, that must be Adam. Choice made.

After that we worked to wake up the merman, keeping him inside the tank so he didn't dry out, he spoke broken English but his story was the same as the others.

"Not sure how we'll get you out of here" I told him "There is a lake nearby" I told him, he nodded pulling up the water indicating I should try it, I grimaced, not keen on drinking merman bath water, the dwarf tugged again and told me the water was fresh, not salt, the lake would be fine. K.C organised the troll and Orc to carry the Merman to the lake, he hit the water then disappeared in a moment.

The Giant came next, he really was a young Giant, barely the equivalent of ten years old, he sat in the shade of one of the buildings, the pygmy sat on his huge knee patting him gently, a strange sight.

"How are we going to get him out of here?" KC asked, "he's a kid" she seemed concerned, a maternal instinct kicking in perhaps, with her features softened she really looked beautiful despite the scars, I got the impression that she didn't show that side of herself very often.

"We'll have to see what Lathain says" I told her, she grimaced and nodded. Theo the dwarf tugged again at my sleeve and handed me the chart for the next to be brought around, the cat, Cakador, something was different about the tubing and wiring here, he seemed to be under a different kind of sleep. After removing all I could find it became apparent that he was indeed different, he remained sleeping and would not wake up to any stimulus, I would need a doctor, or maybe Wizbit. He was huge, his fur white with large spots, was this the jaguar that Convoy had spoken of?

K.C put a hand on my shoulder "The boys are in Chicago, they went on ahead to finish their objective, Convoy, whoever he is said he'd meet you all there" they were in Chicago?

"What about extraction?" I asked, she shook her head

"We're to just meet them in the corridor apparently" That bastard Lathain! Theo handed me the next chart, one Wendigo coming up, I shuddered

"Well can you tell them that so long as we don't get eaten we'll meet them there" I said, she nodded and backed off towards the Giant, a rock giant he was truly huge and she seemed so small next to him. I gritted my teeth; Lathain had just left me out here, Wizbit too.

"Err I kinda feel like a fifth wheel, you got something I can help with?" a voice beside me said, I jumped seeing no one "Err yeah sorry It's me Adam" damn invisibility.

"Oh um, sure you could hold down this set of straps for me" I held out a leather strap attached to the Wendigo and watched it seemingly float across the other side and pull taut, weird. It occurred to me that this was probably what most people thought whenever they met me or Wizbit in our invisible form.

The wendigo bucked once it regained consciousness, Theo mumbled hurriedly to it, still it thrashed around, I couldn't understand it's snarls and barks, Theo seemed genuinely afraid, Adam and I held on for dear life to the straps to keep him restrained, Theo continuously muttering in a language I didn't know, eventually the Wendigo stopped thrashing and barked something.

"He say let go or he will destroy us" Theo mumbled, KC at this point had entered the trailer, gun up and ready just in case, no silver bullet though, but they should still slow him down if he decided to take a snap at someone. Careful to keep back from the jaws I let go of the restraint, the wendigo rose from his table, his magnificent horns so tall they scrapped the ceiling, his overly long arms brushed the floor as he stooped, he glared at me from his black sunken eyes before barking something I didn't understand and then he was up and bounding from the trailer, in a minute he had disappeared from view, my heart was racing and I was shaking.

"You're welcome" I muttered, I steadied myself as Theo handed me the final sheet, last but not least the Ghoul, this had been a brilliant idea . . .


	13. Chapter 13

The ghoul as it happened was not only the most out of character for all the meta humans I had woken but also the most polite and clued up on what was going on.

"One managed to stay awake longer than their drugs could take one out" he explained, he had an odd hiss to his voice, but besides that he spoke almost like an upper class man, his back was straight when he sat, his clawed paws folded neatly in front of him. "One was chosen because one come from the first of the bloodlines to show magical re-introduction" he said the last part with some pride, _so they were pure bloods?_

"Any idea about the cat?" I asked, the ghoul simply shook his head

"No, however the assistant was overheard talking about the gene for mutation being important" he said, I wondered what that meant, the Ghoul looked about showing his sharp needle like teeth "Is there any food around per chance?" he asked, the whole group that had gathered around him took a slight involuntary move backwards, the Ghoul laughed "One does not only eat flesh, one can sustain one's self for a short time on human sustenance" it took a moment to realise he didn't mean human _as_ a sustenance and the relief in the air was tangible and a candy bar dutifully handed over, which was eaten with impeccable manners, it all seemed very wrong to me, but so long as he wasn't going to eat anyone else that was fine by me.

"Does 'One' have a name?" K.C asked as she watched him eat with as much odd fascination as I did.

"Bobvikchekovnia" came the reply, wow, it was quite the mouthful

"Yeah, O.K umm I'm going to call you Bob if I may" K.C said "I'm sorry I simply cannot attempt to repeat your name in full"

"Bob?" The Ghoul asked "hmmm, yes, Bob will suit one quite sufficiently for the time being" so we had a Ghoul called Bob, could this day get any weirder?

"Right people" I said addressing everyone, those who had gone exploring what was left of the base gathered round "We have two options open to us, we can all make our way to Gary and split from there on the train, or we can split here, some taking the train, some taking the bus, or you can chance the desert on your own, the choice is up to you, we leave in half an hour"

"Excuse me" the elf a tall beautiful creature Carlia stood "The giant is of metamorphic rock" she said "I believe the rock pass where the base was located is of the same type, it may be a good place to start looking for his family" she looked out over the party "Anyone who wishes to head back to Seattle and Boston way is welcome with me, we'll take the train for some of the distance, but we're closer than Gary" A sound plan, several of the meta humans stood to go along, leaving myself and KC with the bus, Bob, Adam, Mannery, Geraldine, and Hacker.

"We'll take Cakador with us" I said "I have someone who can help wake him up and maybe unravel some of the pieces" Carlia nodded, Theo looked confused and undecided, choosing in the end to go back to the base area. "Take as many rations with you as you can just in case you need to head into the desert" I told them, "Stick together as a team until you can make your own way and you'll be fine"

"What about weapons?" The troll asked, aside from myself and KC no one had any physical weapons, we had retrieved a dagger and a pistol from the dead body of the train driver, but that was about all, the pygmy stood forward and held up a hand creating a faint blue ball of light

 _I can provide protection for the child_ he said, Carlia also demonstrated some magic, they would not be completely defenceless.

"Good luck guys" We split the group, K.C and I prepped the mini bus, the tyres were good after a quick change and the engine after a few tries turned over fine enough, there even seemed to be enough gas to get us all the way. Mannery took the wheel, before we left K.C retrieved two white lab coats from the train and the medical files for all the meta humans. She also threw me a clean t-shirt and base insignia jacket she had found in an abandoned locker, this would be much better than my sleeveless jersey, sadly the combat trousers she had found were far to large, I would have to hope that my now dry jeans would pass as acceptable, I also hoped no one would spot the bullet hole . . .

"Might need them" she said nodding to the lab coats, we loaded our menagerie onto the mini bus, thankful that we didn't have the weight of the giant which would surely burst the tyres, as we drove off we saw the train set off, chugging backwards along it's rails. "Think the kid'll be O.K?" she asked

"He'll be fine" I said

"Yeah I guess so, the pixie guy is with him" I snorted a laugh

"Pixie guy?"

"Pygmy, I meant pygmy" she corrected blushing and smacking me as I continued to howl at her expense.

"Hey!" Mannery called from the drivers seat "Don't make me come back there!" despite the weariness we couldn't help but laugh. I checked Cakador's vitals as we bumped around in the back of the bus, hopefully he'd be fine. I was still curious to find out what was so special about this cat that meant he had to be drugged and restrained differently.

"Err Hey Ghost, Miss" Adam's voice wavered out, sheets seemingly lifted up of their own accord and shuffled around "I think you should see this"

I moved over, swapping seats with Geraldine and taking the sheets, my fingers brushing something else there, invisible hands, strange since whenever I became invisible my things and anything on my person also shifted. This was just his skin.

"Are you not uncomfortable" I asked "Being . . ."

"Naked?" he finished "Yeah I suppose when I meet a pretty mage who can see me, but generally no not really" I blushed at the compliment and turned my attention to the sheets. "Bob said that we were chosen because we were pure bloods, so we were all descended from the first line of those to appear when magic crept back in during the fall of 2012, now that to me seems bull as my invisibility is self made"

"Self made?"

"I'm a mage who cocked up the first invisibility spell basically" he explained, I thought hard

"But that would make you . . ." I began

"Late 70's" he interrupted, "Indeed I am my girl, but I'm also not of the original descended line, I know my parents weren't part of the original make up and neither was I, so why pick me? I've taken a look at Mannery too, he's different but I'm not sure why, I think it has less to do with the fall and more to do with the strength of the genetics for each individual, see here with our elven lady, she was not related to the first fey that bore through but she does have an unusually high peak of a genome known here as the T15, seems to be a repeat of thiamine in the genetic sequence found on the fifteenth Chromosome, the longer the length of this repetition the more desirable the subject for experimentation, if you look here you'll see she wasn't the first to be brought in for this, the other subjects were measured and replaced whenever a higher peaking subject was found"

"But how did they even know who to look for? They can't screen everyone in UCAS can they?" I asked this was getting over my head, I only remembered a little of the genetics I had learned in school before my life with Torrin, but if what Adam said was true then these people were chosen specifically for their DNA.

"Well funny you should say that, it looks very much like they were all tracked using their comm. devices" my stomach fell away "Something in their DNA set off a trigger in certain comm. links"

"Let me guess, they were all disposable comm. devices, all produced within the last five years" I said.

"Well yes as a matter of fact they are" Adam said, his voice hinting that he had figured I knew more than I was letting on, at least with an invisible man you couldn't see the look which I was sure would be curiosity, and maybe even pressing for more information.

"I came across the technology some years ago" I explained "Back then we could only find evidence that it was designed to only search for one specific DNA profile"

"You mean an individual?"

"Yes" I said "So what about our cat friend?" I asked changing the subject "What do we know about him?"

"Well not a lot really other than he's the first subject to be brought into the project, he's been in and out of drug induced coma's for a while now, his body adapts to each type of drug over time and they end up having to use a different one, the last time he broke out, let loose a bunch of his people and they ended up putting him in "stasis" which I'm sure you can guess is not your average drug coma"

"So the tubes were to keep his body going? Not keep him out?" I asked

"You got it, no muscle atrophy and well fed so he's still in peak condition, he needs to be able to produce sufficient blood to make Serum 80"

"Serum 80?" I asked

"Don't ask me, I can't find any other info here on the serum, or about why he's been targeted specifically, he did have a partner, a mate, but when she broke out she escaped into the caves, they never found her" I glanced at the huge cat laid on the stretcher

"Poor guy" I whispered

"He's a shifter too" Adam said showing me a a chart of Cakador, the body on display however was very much human "they might have needed his shifting genes to make the blood serum?" he guessed

"Hey we're coming up on Gary now" Mannery called "Good thing too, we're nearly outta fuel" We hit a main road leading to Gary, the lack of bumping and jostling from the uneven sand was not missed.

"Good, I need to get out and stretch" K.C complained.


	14. Chapter 14

Gary was a small town, to look at it you would think that the fall had never happened here, it looked like every town ever filmed about before the fall, there was a school, a basic convenience store, a small main street with idyllic shops, like a time out of the past, the first modern tech of note was a small communications booth, but other than that it seemed normal, there were meta humans around, but they were elves, dwarves and the occasional well dressed Orc, I doubted our collection would be welcome.

"Time to don your lab coat Ghost" K.C said putting one on also. She pulled her military badge from her wallet and put that on the front as a form of identification. "I suggest you try and look as nerdy as possible" nerdy? I pulled my hair into rough pigtails and left it at that, there was no way this was going to work, I was still a mess from all the blood, and I knew my clothes were crumpled and dusty from drying in the desert. Mannery pointed out the shuttle station, with a schedules visit to the corridor in the next half hour; with a bit of luck this just might do us.

"I'll talk, you look grumpy" I told her, she snorted

"Piece of cake"

The guard at the shuttle station looked over the paperwork, then across at our menagerie of "test subjects" KC's irritated expression made him a little twitchy, not finding anything out of order other than my missing I.D which KC helpfully explained away as me being "a forgetful bint" I grimaced and he took it to be genuine teasing and so he allowed us aboard. The troop climbed aboard, the jaguar helped aboard by Hacker and Mannery

"That was easy" KC whispered as she sat midway up the bus, further forward from the group, acting as guard

"Too easy" I confirmed "But I'm not going to complain right now" I had been holding my breath as we had been processed, the guard hadn't looked too closely at our attire, or at anything else really, the blood stains though mostly covered by the lab coat were still there, and my hair was in desperate need of a proper wash, the smell of chemical soap however might just be our saving grace here. There were two other people on the bus, both human, we settled everyone in, I made a note of Cakador's vitals then settled near the back, the depression beside me told me Adam had taken seat beside me "Do me a favour and just keep an eye on anyone not in our group" I whispered to him

"Will do" he said, the depression lifted.

We waited patiently for our time to move, just as the doors were about to shut a third man stepped aboard, odd, he didn't have any papers but was allowed straight on. A none descript man, everything about him plain, he had the type of features that if you were asked to pick him out of a crowd five minutes after meeting him you'd have a hard time of it. He took a quick glance about then settled beside Geraldine, strange, there were dozens of individual seats on the bus, why sit next to a complete stranger?

"Want me to keep an eye on him?" a voice whispered next to me, I clamped my mouth shut to stop from yelping in surprise, and simply nodded quickly, my invisible friend moved off presumably to where the odd man was sat speaking quietly with the Gnome.

What could he possibly want? After two or three minutes the bus set off, the driver rang his little bell and we pulled away from Gary station. I tried to settle in for a quiet ride, I wasn't going to get it, about fifteen minutes into the trip Geraldine suddenly got up, climbed over the back of her chair so she didn't have to pass the odd man and went to sit beside Hacker, What? The Gnome and Orc did nothing but argue, why would she sit with him? Unless it was . . .

The man did not seem the least bit perturbed by the sudden exit, simply tapped a note into a palm pad and looked about, spotting Mannery he stood to speak with him.

"He's looking for an elf" Adam whispered "Some guy called Lathain" _Lathain?!_

"Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure" _Bugger_

"Tell KC, I need her to contact Lathain, find out who this guy is, in the meantime I think I'll intervene" I said getting up and walking over to Mannery and the stranger

"I'm sorry, you seem to be upsetting my patients, if there is something you need I would rather you spoke with me" I told the stranger, Mannery gave me a nervous but appreciated glance as the stranger turned his eyes to mine, I had to stop myself taking a step back, everything about the guy was plain, but his eyes, his eyes were the coldest eyes I had ever seen, almost reptilian, they hit me with a force unseen, it took all my strength to hold the gaze

"And you are?" he said, a strong southern drawl

"The doctor" I said

"These are your patients?"

"They are" I said I felt something then, like someone probing around in my brain, as if my mind was full of doors that someone was opening glancing at what lay beyond and closing them, I focused on the man before me, what did he want? Why was he such an upset to the Gnome, was he dangerous? I made these thoughts clear, I glanced up to view Cakador, I would need to check his vitals soon I thought, my eyes fell back to the man in front of me, he had a passing look of surprise and I felt the presence withdraw.

"I am looking for someone" he said reaching inside his coat for an old fashioned photograph, sure enough there on the photograph looking about the age of fifteen was Lathain, the match was in physical appearance only, the young eyes were nervous, even shy, a complete contrast to his demeanour now "Have you seen this man?"

"What do you want with Lathain?" I asked

"So you _do_ know him?" he questioned, the reptilian eyes looking out at me, I suppressed the need to shudder

"I said as much didn't I?" I said back "Met him about a year ago, what do you want with him?"

"I need to find him"

"Why?"

"It is none of your business"

"Well I'm _making_ it my business" I said, letting my voice drop the warning, the reaction was instant, those cold eyes hit again, doors in my head were rattled, but I had locked him out, you didn't spend as much time as I had with someone invading your most personal thoughts without learning to develop a resistance, in my case I had developed a _very strong_ resistance.

"You will tell me where he is"

"Can't tell you what I don't know" I said, his voice was calm but there was fire behind the eyes now

"You will tell me where he is" he repeated

"No, I don't think I will"

"You _will_ tell me what I need to know" a flicker in the corner of my eye saw KC giving me the backing off signal, to hell with it

"Fine, I'll tell you what you need to know" I said leaning forward so my face was mere inches from his "Lathain is one of me and mine and is therefore under my protection, if you want him you'll have to go through me first" Mannery broke into a sweat beside me, the strangers eyes narrowed, he stood, drawing himself to his full height, the doors in my head rattled more insistently

"You will be processed for this" _Processed?_ He strode to the front of the bus and laid a hand on the driver's shoulder, the bus started to slow, KC stepped up beside me

"What's going on?"

"Get ready to take the wheel"

"What?!" I didn't give her time the bus stopped, the man stepped off and withdrew his palm pad and began typing, _oh no you don't_ , a flick of my wrist sent a bolt of lightning to the palm pad, the stranger dropped the now melted device, ringing his hand and hissing in pain, I lurched forward and hit the door close button beside the startled driver, whilst blasting another bolt at the ground in front of the man, he jumped back away from the bus, KC meanwhile was wasting no time dragging the driver out of his seat and hitting the gas, the man started to run beside the bus to keep up, hand bashing the side, we were soon kicking dust into his face, I thought for a second we were off scot free when I saw something that made my stomach drop, the figure suddenly sprouted _wings_ , huge reptilian wings, racing forward flapping great sweeps he rose into the air after the bus, he was . . . he was a drake!

"What the?!" KC yelled at me from the driver's seat "Is that what I think it is?!"

"It is" I confirmed "Open the door" I said

"What?"

"Just open the door!" I shouted, I grasped the centre bar and swung half my body out of the doors as the bus barrelled down the road "Just hold her steady!" I called

"Easier said than done" KC shouted, "I ain't exactly a brilliant driver!"

I took aim with my right hand and shot a lightning bolt, a square hit to the chest, no effect! The drake breathed back and spit a fireball, I ducked inside as the ball hit the concrete beside the bus, right where my head would have been, _not good_ , I swung out and blasted again, still no effect, the drake breathed in again

"Swing right!" I called; KC tugged the wheel narrowly avoiding the next spit ball

"Give me a little more warning!" She screamed at me

"Sorry!" I aimed another bolt, again a direct hit, this one fizzled a little on his chest as he sped towards us, and he didn't even flinch

"That's only making him angry!" KC snapped at me, "Can't you knock him from the sky or something? Aim for a wing"

"Do you want to fight this guy?!" I shouted at her "LEFT!" Again the bus swung horribly across the road, my grip on the bar almost slipped, I broke out into a sweat, I was scared now, drakes were powerful creatures, even younglings would eat me alive if they caught me, and this guy was already pissed off. It screamed, a gut wrenching cry, guttural and alien from the human looking form, I shook.

 _Think_ , what could I use? As if sensing my fear the creature spurred faster, now almost level with the back of the bus, I shot a bolt at it to make it fall back a little, hitting through it's wing, it screamed, angry, but it was slower now, a huge hole ripped inside it's wing, the drakes eyes were now black, pinned on me, The human face twisted and contorted, a reptilian snout started to push through the face, white sharp teeth and deep green eyes as sharp as razors, the man's chest bulged and scales ripped from them, a long needle pointed tail ripped out from behind him and flared out as gliding spines lifted from the tail. I gulped, this was it, I'd pushed it too far, now me and everyone else here would pay the price, why had I been so stupid? . . . _Stupid?_ Stupid! That was it!

"Give me a sharp pull to the right in 5 seconds then hit the brakes" I yelled to KC

"The brakes?!" she yelled at me "Are you nuts?!"

"Little bit" I closed my eyes, left hand tight on the bar, feet firm, I raised my hand, opened my eyes, spell on my tongue. The lurch came, bucking my feet, I finished the spell, the mana light hit square on the creatures chest then the brakes were hit, the creature screamed as it slammed into the back of the bus, wings being dragged under the wheels as KC put the bus in high reverse, dragging and mangling the drake beneath the full weight of the bus, she put the brakes hard on as the bus spit the drake out in front. "Go, Go, Go!" I yelled, KC wasted no time in putting her foot down and shooting forward, the bus bucked again as she ran the drake over going forward, as fast as she could manage the dust trail kicking up over the creature, in the side mirrors rapidly disappearing we saw the drake sit up, fold it's broken wings and turn in circles before we lost it from sight

"Did I hit its head?"

"Probably, but I cast confusion on it, it'll spin in circles for while before he snaps out of it" I told her, leaning on the lever to close the door

"How long is a while?"

"Depends on how strong he is, maybe a day, maybe an hour"

"What did you get me into?"

"Honestly I have no idea"

"Great, just great" she muttered

"What did Lathain say?"

"He said to run and hide"

"Were you talking to the same elf?" I asked surprised

"I was" she said "He sounded scared"

"Lathain doesn't get scared"

"Oh he was scared, he said to run and hide and to forget ever meeting him" she said, the bus lurching horribly as she tried to change gear.

"What is he running from?" I murmured to myself

"How should I know?" KC replied "But whatever it is nearly got me killed, so I'd like to find out what"

"Call him and tell him we took care of it"

"I'm not your receptionist"

"Nope but you're the only one of us with a comm. link and if we don't tell him it's taken care of he'll go into hiding before we can meet up with him"

"Fine, but when we get to the corridor you're getting yourself a comm."

I smiled "Never gonna happen I'm afraid unless you want a special kind of hell to rain down on you" KC gave me a look

"You're all crazy" she muttered

"Never said I wasn't" she laughed at that.


	15. Chapter 15

We slowed down at we reached the entrance to the corridor, the high speed meant we got there a full four hours ahead of schedule, we plonked the driver back in his seat to finish the journey, the two other passengers eyed us warily.

"So what's the plan?" KC asked

"Since when did you put me in charge?" I asked, as if I had any better of an idea what was going on than she did.

"Since you seem to know what you're doing and I've not seen daylight in 5 years, so I'm a little behind on the times" she said, _good point_

"We're getting off at the first check point, we'll catch an inner train to the west gate"

"But wont the drake know we're getting off at the earliest opportunity?" Geraldine asked

"Probably" I said

"Fair enough"KC shrugged

The bus rattled as it pulled into the south gate platform

"Everybody off" I said, I put a hand on the driver's shoulder "Thank you, I'll make arrangements that the drake doesn't come looking for you" he simply nodded at me, I think he was just happy that I was getting off and taking my menagerie with me. No sooner had we stepped off than he put his foot down and sped off away from us, one of the passengers still on board, having huddled in the corner since I had blasted the drake.

"Papers" the guard at the corridor gate asked

"Oh sure, sorry, we were kind of let off here, we're suppose to be at the West gate, I assume we can catch a tube from inside?" KC purred, the guard simply grunted, I handed him our papers, he combed them through carefully, if we were denied access now we'd be screwed, I looked at the guard closely, clean shaven, ironed shirt . . . no wait, only the cuffs and collar were pressed, what little of his uniform beneath his blazer was visible was crumpled, I could just make out the mis-match of his socks. He was quite young, his jaw hardened, he was single, but tough, maybe too tough for the women he knew. His name tag flashed "Cody" a young man's name. I nudged KC and nodded at him, it took her a moment but she cottoned on quick.

"If you would do me a favour actually Cody" she said drawing up beside him "I have a friend who will be arriving here shortly, quite a powerful guy, high up the chain if you know what I mean, you'll know him the second you see him, I need you to let him know that we came through here instead of our original plan, but if you could be extra polite to him, he looks highly on people who call him sir" she lightly touched his collar and gave him a smile "Would you mind Cody?" he looked up from the papers and gave a slight blush, the colour just grazing his cheeks

"Uh, sure I guess I could" he said

"Thank you very much" she pushed a strand of black hair behind her ear "Soooo, what time do you finish your shift?"

"I uh, I just started, so not until 06:00" the faint blush grew a little

"Hmmm such a shame" she said with a smile, lightly fingering the edges of his collar "Maybe I can catch you when I'm next passing through" she gave him a wink and gently pulled the papers from his unresisting fingers

"Uh huh . . . "he trailed off leaning on the uplift button for the check barrier

"Thanks Cody" she said taking a slow walk off, I and the rest already walking on ahead

He gave her a numb wave before we disappeared in the crowd

"Did I execute the plan to your satisfaction?" KC asked

"Sure, we get a slightly loved up guard to tell Drake man that we came this way, no way he's going to believe him, if we're lucky he'll chase the bus further up to the other gates, hopefully slow him down, should take him the full tour of the gates before he realises that we did actually get off here"

"Or so you hope"

"Yup, I'm hoping his keen senses will still be dulled somewhat, make things a bit easier, nice line by the way" KC shrugged liked she didn't care, she gave me a sly grin and handed me a card, Cody's ID badge and tube card. "Nice lift" I told her, at least we wouldn't have to worry about getting cash to move around, at least until the end of Cody's shift. I looked around for the tube lines "K people lets get moving".

Following the instructions KC received over coms the whole party managed to traverse the underground network, trying to fit through those tunnels into the tiny carts with a huge unconscious cat creature was damn hard, The Gnome in particular had the hardest time, her height made her difficult to see in the crowd, in the end she clutched at my hand like a child to prevent from getting swept away. Finally back on street level we could breathe again, Cakador stirred

"Lets see if we can't get him somewhere in door's, he might bolt if he wakes up here"

"How far to where Lathain is hiding?"

"Who says I'm hiding?" a voice called, I turned to see Lathain walking towards us, he was bashed up pretty badly, but still grinning

"Damn what happened to you?" KC asked, genuine concern laced her voice.

"Started and won World War IV" he replied "That General Napper bitch is dead"

"Dead?!" KC and I echoed

"Yup, swallowed a whole host of missiles, tried coming after the train but we caught up and blasted her ass sky high, should have seen it"

"Yeah wish I'd been there" KC said, huh? Was it just me or did she seem to be warming up to Lathain? I felt a small stab of jealousy, but then since Tibet there had been nothing between us, he'd back pedalled so fast, that is of course assuming he'd actually been interested in the first place, maybe it was all in my head and I'd just imagined the whole affair to begin with. I watched as the two of them conversed, Lathain animatedly describing how they'd stolen the chopper which had swung by the train, then blasted Napper and her troops out of the desert before coming to land here, the military registration on the chopper meant they could land here without the usual crap.

"Anyway we'd better get everyone inside" I interrupted, Lathain kept talking but stepped aside and pointed down the street to where Whisperer stood leaning lazily against the doorway of a building watching the reunion unfold. He was observant, exceptionally so, he saw me staring and walked over to lend a hand carrying the semi conscious cat into the building, I took one end of the stretcher from the Ghoul in the hopes that by appearing busy he'd leave me be, but to my dismay he simply took the other side from Mannery. The elevator in the building was only big enough for the two of us with the stretcher, Whisperer told the group which floor since Lathain was still attending to his devoted audience . . . _devoted audience? Geez I sound hung up on the guy_ , I shook my head at myself.

The lift doors closed leaving us alone, Cakador had ceased his fidgeting

"Are you alright?" he asked

"Fine"

"Ah, like that then" he said

"Like what?"

"You say fine and I'm supposed to press for an answer but you wont tell me anyway so I just flit through the possible excuses in my head and come up with the most likely one, only for it to be right in the end" he said as if stating a fact, those eyes of his levelled on my face "You're not fooling me, so why don't you just tell me?"

"Because I don't trust you" I said simply

"You don't trust anyone" he commented "Not even Lathain"

"How would you know?" I asked sharply

"Because he didn't turn the chopper round to look for you"

"I can take care of myself, Lathain knows that" I defended, Whisperer shrugged as the doors began to open

"I wanted to turn back" he said

"What?" but he didn't answer me back, simply smiled and guided his end of the stretcher out of the lift.


	16. Chapter 16

The group gathered in a large office space, a stranger in a white lab coat was busy writing ID papers to get the group into Chicago. Most of the group took up the various chairs and the sofa, trying to catch up on much needed sleep, it had been a very trying day, it was hard to believe that barely 12 hours ago I had been at home enjoying a kip, in that time I'd been shot at, attacked by military, attacked by half cat men, got into a fist fight and been kissed by one hell of a sexy man, not to mention chased by a fucking drake and nearly eaten by some unknown weird werewolf creature, all before being forced into a feral hell hole, oh yeah this day was going just _great_. Wizbit came across to see how I was, spending a little time healing my arm and leg wound.

"You look like hell" he told me, when he'd finished "You need anything else?"

"Just tired" I told him

"Why don't you get some rest?" I shook my head; no way was I going to sleep in such a crowded room with strangers

"I'll be alright" I told him, he gave me a sideways look that told me I was being an idiot

"You look like you're about to drop dead on your feet" he said

"I'll sleep when this is all over" I said "So where's Lathain?"

"Avoiding you, naturally" he replied "KC gave him an ear full when she arrived" he looked at me closely a moment "So this Whisperer guy, you know him?" I blinked my confusion a moment

"What? No, I don't, just met him today"

"Huh? He seemed concerned about you, _genuinely_ concerned, seemed to think we should have turned the chopper around to pick you guys up"

"You should" I snorted, Wizbit shrugged

"We're in a chopper which you could very easily fry and pull out of the sky if you have an episode" he said "Too dangerous to pick you up with us"

"That's _bull_ and you know it" I snapped "I arrived on a chopper and I can vent in other ways" electricity flared over my skin, my scars lighting up beneath the collar of my coat "You're afraid of me Wizbit and you've no need, stop acting like I'm dangerous or I'll show you how dangerous I can be" I turned away and headed to the showers; I tried not to let him see my tears.

The hot spray was welcoming, I carefully cleaned every part of myself, removing the last traces of blood, my skin from my newly healed wounds was pink and itched under the water, the shower unit beside mine was on, K.C taking a hot shower too, she threw me a bottle of shampoo, grateful for the luxury I spent longer in there than I should have, my skin pink and rubbed raw now a little wrinkled from the water. The towels here were rough, but I didn't mind, it was just good to be clean again. I changed into my spare gear that Convoy had brought in with him having arrived earlier with his truck, spending a little time in the shower room drying my hair awkwardly beneath the hand dryer.

I took a long look in the mirror; my pale skin had a ghosting of dark circles beneath my eyes despite only being up for twelve hours. I brushed my teeth and combed my hair letting it fall to my waist loose. I sighed, pulled on my utility belt, swapping out the main belt for the new memory blade, shrugged on my long coat and wandered back into the main rooms.

Most of the group were sleeping, Hacker and Geraldine oddly side by side on the huge sofa, their earlier grumblings forgotten in the attempt to get some shut eye, Wizbit had seen each of them in turn, K.C was dozing in a chair in the corner, Wizbit, Lathain and Convoy were nowhere to be seen, nor was Whisperer.

I walked to the window to look out at the strange city below, the corridor was an odd attachment, a place of transit, everything here was moveable, people, businesses, hell even half of the buildings looked like they could be packed up onto the back of a sturdy trailer. I watched the people below me mill around like insects, the floodlights under the artificial sky kept the place at a constant heated temperature, the extra heat was making me more sleepy, I felt my eyelids flutter, I removed my coat to cool down a little, feeling lighter without the leather weight, I rubbed my eyes to clear them. The smell of coffee drew me round to where Whisperer stood holding out a mug that steamed hot and inviting, sipping from his own mug he held it for me. I simply stared at it sleepily; he rolled his eyes at me then withdrew it, holding out instead the one he'd just been drinking from

"Hope you like it strong" he said, I sheepishly took the offered cup and took a sip, not kidding it was strong, but I needed it.

"Thanks" I said, he shrugged and took a sip of his own wincing

"Ugh, sweet" he said "I put sugar in yours, Lathain said you take two"

"Actually I don't take any" I said handing him back his mug and taking the one he held "He probably did it to make you look bad"

"Figures" he mumbled taking a sip, I took a sip of the new cup, yep very sweet, but then I was used to sweetness, just taking the drink made me think of Torrin's baking, my stomach protested the lack of food, "Mm" Whisperer began, mouth full of coffee, he swallowed and rummaged in one of his deep pockets, pulling out an energy bar and handing it to me "Almost forgot"

"Thanks" I said taking the snack, but didn't open it, he looked past me out the window to the miniature world of insect people below, it seemed like he was trying to say something, being more a watcher than a talker I guess it was difficult for him to put thoughts to words, or maybe he was just thinking of something interesting to say, the light through the window really showed the intensity of the blue in his eyes, and again there was the faintest hint of cinnamon about him, he really was attractive, well built, defined muscles, but not the bulk of the body builder, he gave off a natural energy that I was drawn to.

"Soooo" he finally broke the silence, eyes out of focus through the window "You and Lathain . . ."  
"There's nothing going on" I interrupted

"Oh I know that" he said confidently "That's not what I was going to say, but thanks for confirming it for me"

"Huh?"

"I was going to ask where you, Lathain and Wizbit are heading after this, that Convoy guy too, I take it he's with you guys? I want to say he is but he doesn't gel like the three of you do, so I figure he might be new to the group"

"Oh he is" I stuttered "Well I mean he's on a job with Wizbit and Big Ears"

"Big ears huh? And the chances of me getting away with using that nickname are?"

"Slim" I said "I barely get away with it at times"

"And he calls you Casper right?"

"Yeah, you're pretty observant" he finally took his eyes out of the window and shrugged

"I like to keep an eye on things"

"What kind of things?" he gave me a shy smile

"Anything that interests me" the shyness gave way to a slight flirty look and I blushed, hiding my face behind my hair.

"Ghost" Wizbit called "Lathain wants a word"

"K" I called back, turning to Whisperer again "Thanks again for the coffee"

"Told you we'd get a drink sometime" he said with a smile, I smiled back, hiding my blush "Maybe next time we could go to a little bar I know?" he asked, a shy hopefulness crept to his voice, the eyes behind the glasses softened a little, it was incredibly tempting to reach out to him there and then, heart thudding in my chest, I stepped forward, slow and tentative . . .

" _Ghost!_ " Lathain's shout came across the room, breaking the moment and starting K.C awake from her doze. The tall elf came striding to the window, looking pissed off "Do you want me to tell you what's going on or not?" he asked arms folded looking very much like a child. Is eyes showed intent jealousy at Whisperer

A low growl of annoyance could be heard, I was a little surprised to see that it wasn't just me, but Whisperer as well, Lathain caught it in an instant.

"Oh I see" he said grinning broadly "you two were about to hit it off big time, did I interrupt you in your _special moment_?" Air quoted fingers

"I was just asking . . ." Whisperer began

"And I said sure, and _yes_ you are interrupting" I butted in ignoring the look of surprise from Whisperer followed quickly by a grin "Why should I care what's going on now anyway? You said yourself when I first arrived I should just leave, and you did just leave me and KC in the middle of fucking no-where"

"I didn't mean that you had to, I mean things have changed since we took the job and"

"I was about to leave" I carried on regardless of his feeble muttering "But Whisperer here has convinced me to stay, given that I think he should be involved in your little secret meeting, K.C too since she's about the only person here who's been in my good graces recently"

Lathain's mouth wagged up and down silently, lost for words, he looked from me to Whisperer, who simply held up his hands

"Hey mate, don't look at me, I got someplace to be, have your little meeting, I'll catch up later" with that he strode past Lathain to the door, thought better for it a moment and turned back "Friday?"

"Friday" I confirmed, I wish I had a comm. link to take Lathain's picture in that instant. The elf leaned in for a moment

"How well do you _really_ know him?" Lathain asked me

"Intimately" I said copying Whisperer's earlier comment, I gave Lathain a smile, leaving my uneaten bar and half drunk coffee on the windowsill and walked to the adjoining room where a very confused looking Wizbit and Convoy waited.

"Do I want to know?" Convoy whispered to Wizbit, the mage shrugged.

"Probably not"

"The device is indeed a weapon" Lathain announced "Napper gave me that much before we blasted her to pieces" he grinned at that. "We've also managed to confirm that Napper was taking the device to auction in Chicago, her main man Demonia is carrying it on his person, Napper was to oversee the exchange between the weapon and the highest bidder whilst putting in a bid for it herself. Now I've been keeping tabs on the comm. chatter and the base are sending someone to take Napper's place, I vote we highjack this person and take their place instead, then swipe the weapon that way" he grinned again, a sound plan but for one problem.

"Yeah, great idea except the contact will have been given certain code words and such that we won't know about" Wizbit said voicing my thoughts

"Ah but this is where your magic mumbo jumbo stuff comes in, you can get him to talk" Lathain said, I looked to Wizbit who shook his head

"Neither of us has that capability" Wizbit said, the elf's ears dropped a little as did his grin.

"I can get him to talk" K.C said from the back where she leant casually "I just need five minutes" Lathain looked pleased, I groaned, this was never going to work

"Why don't we just go in as a bidder?" Convoy asked "Buy the thing legit" All eyes turned to him, probably with the same thought that I had which went along the lines of _Why didn't we think of that?_ Convoy shrank down into his chair "I'm just saying" he mumbled

"And it's a good idea" I said "We'll do that, but I agree with Lathain that we need to stop Napper's counterpart, though I am curious as to why Napper didn't just stop the device going to Chicago in the first place if she wants it for herself, if we can compromise Napper's position then we can have a better chance of stealing the thing if we don't win the bid" there was a general murmur of agreement.

"Whilst Napper may want the device it's got umpteen trackers attached to it" Lathain said showing a slide "and the case it is in will only open when a command is given, a GPS command, meaning she couldn't open it until it got to the auction house"

"Do we know where this auction is going to take place?" KC asked

"Not yet, but there are a few people in the corridor who are privy to that information, a contact called Spook, she apparently wants the device too and is looking for a front man" Lathain looked to where Wizbit was sat "And I think of all of us she's more likely to trust our male mage than the rest of us"

Wizbit looked surprised and raised an eyebrow "And why is that?" he asked

"Because she has a soft spot for men of your type" Lathain grinned "So you're front man on this"

"What about the rest of us?" I asked

"Well we need a few extra eyes on the ground, we'll need someone to take Napper's position, Wizbit to work for this Spook chick, and we could take Convoy's idea and go in as a separate bidder, meaning three of us out for the count, we could do with extra bodies for back up" I heard a soft snort from KC that told me she was happy to be involved, they had me, possibly Whisperer, Convoy looked uneasy but nodded too

"We can ask if anyone else wants to join?" KC asked, Lathain and Wizbit pondered this a moment, shrugged then agreed.

"Right then, let's get ourselves into Chicago shall we?" Lathain grinned, happy once again.

During our three hour trip getting into Chicago the boys had been busy making contacts to get in, the office space we were taking up belonged to an old friend of Lathain's whose specialty was forgery of documents, old school method. Known simply as "The Professor" to runners his aged appearance coupled with his quick witted humour reminded me somewhat of Torrin, that and his old style forgery kit complete with inks, dyes, wax and foils; perhaps it was because actual paper copies were so rare they were only reserved for really important files and information. It worked the same way that Torrin did, with using servers and bandwidths that were no longer in use, meaning no one bothered to protect themselves from attack on those sides anymore. The while I sat by the window, the room too crowded and noisy to sleep; or that was my excuse, in reality I just didn't trust anyone enough to be around me when I slept. After a time KC joined me, lighting a cigarette and pulling deeply on the white stick.

"You should sleep" she said "you . . . "

"Yeah I know I look like crap" I interrupted, I was getting a little tired of hearing it

"I wasn't going to say that" she shrugged "I was going to say the guys are setting off at first light, we got a room with Geraldine to share, you know on account of that girl thing despite having stayed in mixed barracks for the last five years" she growled low, bitter at the memory.

"So what are your plans?" I asked

"No clue" she said honestly "I really thought I was going to die down there, didn't ever think I'd see sky again so didn't really make a plan as such"

"Family? Friends?" I asked, she shook her head

"Not anymore, they all think I'm dead, Mom died when I was a baby, dad brought me up but he passed on last year" she slid her eyes my way, "I looked them up, there was a guy I had been with, he's married now with a kid" she paused a moment, a hand absentmindedly stroked across her belly before continuing "We were engaged" she explained "Thinking of starting our own family, then I got the call out, got this" she indicated the huge scar across her throat "Woke up underground and been fighting to stay alive ever since" she paused and smiled "Well I say to stay alive, more like long enough to be a burden to the people who took me"

"Why did they put you there?" I asked curious

"Fuck if I know or even care" she snorted, putting out her cigarette stub on the windowsill "No clue where to go from here either, been out of the loop for a long time and I was never the most sociable of people before all this kicked off anyway, feel a little out of place and time, so much has gone on whilst I've been under, Patriots won every season though so that was something" she smiled at me.

"Why don't you . . ." I trailed off as her blue eyes slid to mine again "You could stay with me for a bit until you find your feet" I suggested

"Why?" I was a little taken aback by the question at first and it took me a moment to answer.

"Well firstly you need a place to stay and you did save my ass so I kind of owe you, that and I kinda wouldn't mind the company" I confessed "I've not been home alone for long, been staying with a . . . friend" I supplied "It's weird being in a completely silent house for so long" KC raised an eyebrow at me "I have issues" I explained "and I'm probably not the easiest person to live with on account of spark outs, nightmares and a general aversion to being near other people" I mumbled. KC cracked a grin.

"Sounds perfect" she said "That'd be grand" she stared out the window with me for a few minutes before speaking again. "So . . . you and Lathain" she began

"There's nothing going on" I interrupted

"Oh I know that" she said smugly "That's not what I was going to say, but now I know you're not the competition"

"Huh?" this sort of felt like déjà vu

"He's single right?" I blinked confused then nodded, she grinned

"Yeah he's available, I mean I think he is" I said suddenly feeling awkward

"And Whisperer?" she queried, I blushed unable to stop it from happening

"I think he's free too" I mumbled remembering the heat of his kiss "Pretty sure" KC laughed the sound musical and free, the sound seemed to startle her after a moment, as if she hadn't heard her own laugh for a long time, on reflection she probably hadn't.

"Fine, I'll leave him for you" she winked at me and turned to go

"That's not what I meant, I mean . . ." I tried to correct her, blushing hugely and failing to find the words "I mean we're not, what I meant to say was we, I mean I . . ." I fumbled for words clumsily, my face hot and no doubt as red as my hair.

"Chill girl" KC said "Was just asking" she winked again and moved on leaving me red faced.


	17. Chapter 17

I made a half hearted attempt to sleep, but it evaded me, the lights and movements of the corridor were a distraction, the need to vent my charge brought me out of bed several times and the discomfort of being around strangers meant I would simply have to put up with it and sleep when this was all over instead. On the table KC's com flashed up, text rolled across the screen, Whisperer, he was in Chicago chasing a lead about Napper, other than that I couldn't see as KC rolled over obscuring the comm. link from view.

I sat on the end of the sofa bed wondering, what was it about that man that I had such a pull for? It wasn't simply his looks, he was handsome yes but there was Lathain who was stunning, no it was something else, I just couldn't put my finger on it. I hated not knowing the reasons behind something. My fingers brushed my lips, remembering the feel of his lips over mine, the heat of his hands through the cotton of my shirt, the press of him . . . my mind trailed off as a realisation occurred to me. I wasn't afraid of him, contact, physical intimate contact and I had embraced it, not run from it, I didn't feel the onset of a nightmare, no shakes, no fits or visions, no flashbacks from my Step father. Did this mean I was healing? It seemed too good to be true, so probably was, and besides I knew nothing about the guy, for all I knew he could be evil, have a girlfriend, a serial cheater . . .

I sighed; this train of thought was depressing and starting to make me feel uncomfortable. I went back to the main room, the air smelling of paint, papers freshly crumpled sat on the desk waiting to let us through to Chicago. The plan of attack was to find the place where the auction was taking place, win or fudge the bid and get hold of the weapon, Whisperer was tracking down more intel on the transmutation circle and how it related to Napper, Wizbit was out shadowing the Device and it's chaperone; how Wizbit or Whisperer had gotten into Chicago I have no clue, apparently Wizbit had taken Adam with him, and would be back by the morning.

I remembered Cakador and looked about the rest of the sleeping forms, at first I thought he had gone, freaked and run loose, but there had been no such alarm, but there was also no cat laying about, the stretcher was gone, packed into a corner, so where was he?

I found him in the corner, curled up beneath the table, a man, one who hadn't been around before, dressed in ill fitting clothes and barefoot. He looked Hispanic, dark skinned and a mess of black hair. I had momentarily forgotten he was a shape shifter; if he was now in human form did that mean he had woken up?

I stepped from the room into the corridor's streets thinking to grab a drink from somewhere; I'd need the caffeine since the brain had decided that the rest of my body should stay awake too. I found a small all night café and ordered a chicory coffee, the girl behind the counter looking very much like she wanted her own shot of caffeine, when she was done serving me she went back to her palm pad, Biology texts scrolled the screen, a college girl. I sat and drank trying to straighten out my head.

I was in a big city, a near dead city, one controlled strictly by the top mega corps with a million cameras and sensors, I would be going into one of the most dangerous cities for a mage, Wizbit had warned me about FID clouds of magic sucking bacteria that blew around the city and were to be avoided at all costs, I was chasing up an item I didn't even want to find, I just wanted to finish my coffee, catch a train back home and curl up and sleep. I wanted to forget all about Lathain's crazy stunts and Wizbit's cold shoulder, wanted to forget about this Whisperer man who made my blood heat just by being in the same room.

I sighed, I missed Torrin, I'd barely been out of the house and in my own place and already I was tired of it, I wanted to go where I felt at home, where I had someone to welcome me. But Torrin had been right that I needed to get out in the world, take my own cases, make a name for myself, get stronger so that I could defeat my step father should he come looking for me again.

Thoughts of my step father made me shudder; I'd been keeping up with the business of course, finding out his latest technological releases, there was a new design of com unit every other week now being released, more if you took in the back door ones for the shadow community. Each one no doubt fitted with the same DNA trace that had been used to track me down that first time, years ago, and the com that had led them to Emmett.

This mission was forcing me out into a world I wasn't sure I really belonged in, broken and tired of it all, I would probably only get people killed. But I stayed, and I knew I would see it through to the end, because that was how Torrin did it.

I dropped my change into the tip box and turned to go, pausing a moment as I saw the palm pad screen, titled " _Meta human genetics: the source of the magic_ ". My curiosity –peaked I asked if I could see the screen, the girl looked at me warily a moment

"I'm trying to look up stuff on the T15 genome in Meta humans, but my magic interferes with most devices, I was wondering if you'd mind looking it up for me?" I asked waving a fifty under her nose, she gave me a wary smile then proceeded to flick through the palm pad.

"Looks like the T15 genome is new to meta humans" she said "There's a bunch of stuff here about how the T15 wasn't seen in old DNA profiles, that its only seen in meta humans and those humans which possess magical abilities"

"Mages?"

"Looks like" she said "the T15 genome is a sequence of base pair repeats, each repeating line ordinarily thought of as junk DNA varies from person to person, however scientists in London U.K have theorised that this repetition may be linked to the introduction of the meta humans to the human world" she quoted "Copies of the original human genome project show no indication of this repetition within the sequences, and isolated human tribes throughout the world also do not show this unusual characteristics, however it may be seen readily in any meta human, and to some extent those humans which are able to draw on magical potential energies" she paused to take a sip of her coffee

"So this thing is in all metahumans other than the original pure human breeds?" I mused, _interesting_

"The Sequence itself whilst varying in length over time appears to be reducing" the girl carried on "Samples of Orc DNA taken in early 2016 show a large quantity of junk repetitions in this area, however decendants of this Orc are shown to have considerably fewer repetitions. Blood samples were analysed from other meta races and were found to show the same drop in quantity seen in the Orc specimen. Some scientists have theorised that the T15 sequence may be a timer and that once the populous expands and reduces the junk DNA to a limited quantity, or indeed breeds it out that the meta humans will cease to exist and the world will return to its human purity" she paused to look at me

"Thank you" I said "That was actually really helpful" I handed over the fifty

"Do you really think the meta humans will die out when this T15 thing disappears?" she asked me, I shrugged

"I have no idea" I told her "there has to be more to the genetics than just this sequence, but its pretty scary stuff in reality" she pondered a moment

"I hope not" she said "My boyfriend is a dwarf, I'd hate for anything to happen to him" I raised a sharp eyebrow, she didn't strike me as the type, she was a pretty tall girl, at least my height, probably more if she straightened up a little, but then you can't help where you find love. I gave her a gracious smile and left.

I found a small comm. unit round the corner from the café, I dumped some change into a sent a text message to Lindsey to let him know I was still after the device but so far had kept Lathain and his team from getting their hands on it. I didn't bother telling him anything else, my only thought was to keep him appraised so he wouldn't go after Torrin, assuming of course that Torrin was in any danger in the first place.

The corridor wind blew around me mussing up my hair, something caught on my boot and made me pause. I looked down to find a playing card stuck there, curious I pulled it from my boot, the front sprayed with sticky blood, the colour bright, almost fake looking, but the smell was coppery so it was real, probably arterial given the spray pattern. It was the ten of clubs, I looked for a bin but didn't see one so stuck it in my pocket thinking to keep it until I came by one, once it was there though it fell from my mind and I forgot about it, much like the man whom it must have belonged to, he wouldn't be needing it where he'd be going. I gave a cursory look about for other signs of a struggle but found none, it must have been dropped here, but whatever.

Back at the office block Lathain was awake and pacing, his quick strides light and easy on the carpet and didn't threaten to wake the sleeping forms as a human's footprints would have. He looked relieved when I entered.

"You're back then" he said, I nodded and moved to remove my coat, careful of the sleeping Orc whose foot twitched idly. "I was worried you'd gone home and left or something"

"I said I'd stay so I will, besides I still have a weapon to retrieve, or destroy, whatever it ends up being" I said. I pulled my hair into two and began to braid one down its full length, a distraction tactic and something to keep my hands busy.

"I'm sorry" Lathain said quietly, I barely heard it "About today, I wanted to turn around and get you but something just stopped me from doing it" he sighed heavily "I don't know what it was, I had that Whisperer guy shouting at me to turn around and for some reason because it was him telling me what to do I just froze up and kept going, I . . . I shouldn't have and I'm a jerk for it" he sat down head rested in a hand looking out the window.

"Are you saying you're jealous of Whisperer?" I said, was he? Had Lathain seen how Whisperer looked at me and seen it as a threat? He'd a funny way of showing his emotions to me since Tibet if that was the case.

"I'm not jealous, I just don't like the guy" he said folding his arms, he stared out the window for a moment "There's just something about him that makes me think he's not such a good guy"

"And any of us are?" I asked, he couldn't answer to that "You left me behind Lathain, you turned your back on me, turned your back on KC and all those other meta humans who were prisoners of that place" I shot him a look "it's like you're a different person, like I don't know you anymore. I bet if I asked you wouldn't tell me about the drake that was after you" He looked down.

"I promise I wont leave you behind again Ghost, this case just got scary for me, it's brought up things in my past that I don't really want to face yet" his eyes were wide and nervous, he looked lost, fragile even, but I was too angry and hurt at him to care just then. I shook my head and stalked to the room where KC and Geraldine were still sleeping, I sighed and fell to the covers of my camp bed and pretended to get some sleep.


	18. Chapter 18

The Chicago territory is closely guarded; there are military personnel from practically every country here, each parading their presence. Mages are in abundance in the corridor, hired to hold the shield barrier in place to protect the people outside from the FID clouds and other unknowns on the other side. Twenty years ago a mass explosion cut through Chicago, blowing up much of the city, taking out buildings, roads, the city was in chaos. And then they came.

They, the brotherhood, they're a race of extra dimensional beings the likeness of bugs and termites, bees and ants, a likeness to most colony insects found on earth but different. They're all huge, and they eat mana. They're a mage's worst nightmare, cold bodies that absorb most forms of mana attacks, fire and lightning are but a few of those elements that can get through, they hit in swarms, going for the weaknesses in the defence. When they hit twenty years ago the world was still new to the re-introduction of the meta-human line and casualties were many.

But the forces beat them back into their rift and sealed it, as best they could anyway. The space between their reality and ours was weak here. The world united and decided to hold the city as an active ground zero. Dark mana still seeped into Chicago from the rift wounds, creating a hostile environment where mages couldn't stay for long, and those humans who had stayed had reported odd mutations appearing with their bodies. Some Meta humans were unaffected, the trolls and Orcs thrived there, some forming gangs in the newly sealed city, some more adventurous and brutal folk managed to create a source of income for the city in the form of huge factories which produced dark matter cells. Batteries made with the energy of the rift, but for the most part Chicago was dead, a no man's land. Perhaps its neutral status was why the exchange had been scheduled to take place there.

Lathain gathered the troop, including myself there was Convoy, Wizbit, KC, Geraldine, Hacker, Manning, and if I shifted focus I could see Adam. Quite the menagerie, the others had opted to stay behind, Cakador was still sleeping off the drugs and Bob the ghoul had decided to stay behind and wait for him to wake up, he assured us though that he would join us later. Lathain had taken the lab coat KC had swiped; I wore my own from the trip here. The rest were put in basic cuffs to look like prisoners. KC had pulled the creases from her uniform and was the acting guard. Basic but that was all we needed. I had no idea how Whisperer was going to get in, or Bob for that matter.

"Papers" a gruff voice huffed at Lathain, the elf had the sense to look humble before the aged guard at the Corridor's gate as his wrinkled hands flipped the pages. "You're missing one" he grumbled. Lathain shot him a sly grin

"Actually we have him right here, terrible accident with his magic, seems he's gotten stuck in his invisibility mode" he said, he removed the papers from the guard's hands "Thought it best to be honest and up front sir, keen eyes like yours never miss a trick" the flattery hit the mark, the old man's head clicked onto another point

"If he is indeed in your party then the sensors will pick him up, but it also means you've brought a mage into Chicago" he said, he leaned into Lathain "You know what this place does to mages young man"

"Yes sir" Lathain said "We're just here for a few days to drop off, we'll be outta here in no time" he said, the elf lowered his voice, I barely heard the next line "poor creatures are going to be tested on sir, see if the clouds are any weaker than when they started, there's more than one amongst this lot sir, my colleague is here to keep them on a short leash but we'll be safe enough" he nodded as he withdrew, a subtle end to the conversation. The old guard grunted and opened the gate; I shifted my gaze until I could make out the haze of Adam, once the crew were inside the gate I stepped in.

"All present and correct Ma'am" I said addressing KC who simply rolled her eyes as if she didn't really want to be here. In honesty I wasn't sure how real that image was, but it was enough to show the guards that we had accompaniment. The gate closed behind us and we started walking, ten meters ahead was a second gate and a grid of laser lights, the grid swept over the party, beeping for every person it detected, even Adam. Lathain had been smart to include him on the roster. The gate ahead of us opened and the dust flew in, smoky and slightly acidic like lemon citrus. We stepped through the opening, looking up there was a huge central spire to the old city which towered above every other building in the way Lathain towered over Geraldine's tiny form. Lasers projected a basic map into the sky, two areas of the city were obscured by a green mass, the FID clouds which rolled around the city, someone was in the topmost room of the tower mapping the cloud and projecting their presence out to the city residents. I made a note to look up often; I might need to find a safe place in a hurry. As the gate closed behind us I let out a breath.

We were in.

 **A/N:** Thanks for reading guys, this is the end of part one. Part two is on the way. Playing the campaign this is based on was great fun, if slow. There were nine of us cramped into a tiny bedroom to play this, as a result I had a lot of characters to fit in, most sadly I've thinned out for the sake of the story, but the peeps behind those characters are ok with it. Sadly most of the new people to the group didn't stick around to finish the story, but hopefully they'll read this and find out how it all ended.

I hope you guys enjoyed reading this, I'm open to reviews and suggestions for improvements, just leave a review or PM me

Cheers x


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